The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) is calling on the Government to take further action to crack down on uninsured drivers. It wants the government to fund a publicity campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of driving without car insurance, as well as provide the resources for a new enforcement agency.

BIBA says the Government has been too slow in drafting regulations to tackle uninsured driving. It says 35,000 claims are made against the motor insurers’ bureau each year by victims of uninsured drivers. Of these 24,000 are injury claims caused by uninsured drivers, costing £417 million. BIBA considers this to be unacceptable.

To date the Department for Transport has implemented a number of changes including, providing the police with new powers to access the motor insurance database and to seize uninsured vehicles. BIBA says these changes have helped to reduce uninsured driving by nearly 10% since 2006 and have prevented an estimated £30 million in uninsured driving claims during that period. But it says more can be done.

 “We have seen a great effort from the insurance industry in setting up the successful motor insurance database to crack down on uninsured driving, but eradicating this problem now requires a real commitment from Government,” says Eric Galbraith, Chief Executive of BIBA speaking at the BIBA annual conference in Glasgow. “The Government has been dragging its feet on drafting new regulations which are desperately needed to help tackle uninsured driving in the UK. I am calling on Ruth Kelly and her team to do their utmost to set these regulations in motion at the earliest opportunity.”