stick GEN11 into the askmid.com
you'll see
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you'll see >>
Be warned, too many searches as per your post and the authorities may get suspicious:
"I confirm that the vehicle detailed above is registered, owned or insured by either my employer or myself and is regularly driven by me. I understand it is an offence to wrongfully obtain information of this nature without reasonable cause and if I fail to provide true reasons for acquiring information I may be committing an offence of unlawfully obtaining data contrary to section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1988."
Edited by jbif on 31/08/2009 at 18:34
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oops, it comes up 'chitty chitty bang bang' by the way.
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I may be committing an offence of unlawfully obtaining data contrary to section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1988." >>
Golly. This sounds a bit like the bit of the law that stops us all photographing policemen. Or not.
If AskMID tells me a car is insured (or isn't) what bit of "data" do I have that I can somehow use? S55 refers to "personal data" and I doubt whether or not my car is insured falls into that category. But maybe AskMID are right and I'm wrong.
What's the point of having AskMID accessible by you or me if we can only ask it about our own cars? I know whether or not I'm insured without having to consult a database.
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I may be committing an offence of unlawfully obtaining data contrary to section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1988."
Or is it the offence of not giving them money, as you can pay a fee of £3.50 to get info on cars not registered to you?
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What's the point of having AskMID accessible by you or me if we can only ask it about our own cars? I know whether or not I'm insured without having to consult a database. >>
You could easily get answers to these questions by looking up t'internet, but to help you here are the relevant extracts from the AskMID website.
1. you can pay a fee to get details of other cars in the following instance:
"Accident? Need to check the other vehicle is insured? For a small charge, check the Motor Insurance Database (MID) to confirm if the other vehicle appears on it.
The date of the accident and the registration details of the other vehicle are required to search askMID.
If the vehicle appears on the MID, you will get the policy number, insurer of the other vehicle and a claims contact number to help you progress a claim with the insurer.
2. As you probably well know from previous threads, the fact that you know you are insured is of no consequence if you are not on the MIB database. To quote from AskMID:
"Vehicles which don't appear on the MID can be stopped and seized by the police."
Further legalese to amuse you can be found at
www.askmid.com/termsofuse.aspx
Edited by jbif on 31/08/2009 at 21:14
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OK, jbif, but nothing in what you can get without the fee seems to me to be personal data so I can't see any problem in looking up the car next door on MID if you're curious as to whether or not it's insured. You'll note that nothing they give to you for a fee seems to be "personal data", either. It's just another money-maker. If I need the insurance details of another car it will be because the driver hasn't stopped to talk to me and so I'll be talking to my local police who will no doubt get the details themselves.
And as for 2, yes I know that, but if I'm insured and the police (being short of something to do in taking off the road the cars that actually are uninsured) stop me and tell me I'm not on MID database, we'll have to see what happens.
Like so much now, we seem to be looking at systems which are inadequately maintained or don't work properly and well-intentioned legislation imperfectly understood.
Sorry if I appear to be hijacking a jokey thread.
Edited by Optimist on 01/09/2009 at 00:11
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>>"Vehicles which don't appear on the MID can be stopped and seized by the police."
All vehicles can be stopped by the Pleece.
As for seizure per say, that is Crap.
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It's happened often enough on the telly shows (Road Wars, Interceptors etc). Seems quite reasonable, as if the person driving isn't insured then how can they drive it anywhere?
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i think the police have a seperate system, don't they. police national computer sounds familiar.
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Same database I expect...
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It is the same database that's the whole point. It feeds into PNC.
as for hijacking the thread - no worries, without this debate it would have been moved into the Silly Thread anyway.
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It's just occurred to me that the info any of us can access on the MID is like the check you can make on the DVLA site on car tax.
Except I can't find that this morning. Anyone point me in the right direction?
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the check you can make on the DVLA site on car tax. Except I can't find that this morning. Anyone point me in the right direction?
Try:-
tinyurl.com/a9n9jm
Edited by SpamCan61 {P} on 01/09/2009 at 14:30
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Thanks.
Pretty much as I thought: the tax equivalent of the MID info. So I'd say what MID have to say about data protection is probably incorrect.
Still, they're only the motor insurance industry so we can't expect them to be right on the law, can we?
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