4500 uninsured vehicles seized in 'week of action'
An annual crackdown on uninsured vehicles has this year seen more than 4500 motors removed from the roads in just one week.
The appropriately-named ‘Week of Action’ is organised annually the Motor Insurer’s Bureau, in partnership with police forces from across the country. It is in support of the MIB’s ‘Operation Drive Insured’ campaign.
Alarmingly, the 2025 total of uninsured vehicles caught and removed was almost a third up on last year. This year's hotspot for uninsured driving is Thurrock, followed by two districts in Birmingham, along with Peterborough and Sandwell.
So far in 2025, more than 131,000 uninsured vehicles have been seized – that's one every four minutes.
"Once again, Operation Drive Insured has been instrumental in drawing attention to the devastation uninsured driving has on victims and the wider impact it has on our society," says the MIB’s Martin Saunders.
"This year’s result clearly demonstrates the need for such coordinated efforts. We do not want any motorist to drive uninsured… we will continue to collaborate with all UK police forces to identify and remove uninsured vehicles from our roads, dealing with those purposefully flouting the law in a robust manner."
Motorists who were unwittingly driving uninsured were undoubtedly among those caught in the crackdown. The MIB is therefore urging people to carefully check their policy, set up reminders for when it expires and not assume auto-renewal will kick in.
The campaign also saw 108 arrests for drug possession, theft offences and fraudulent documents plus 226 prosecutions for other offences such as false plates, disqualified driving and stolen vehicles.
A further 125 vehicles were caught with no MoT, bald tyres, defective lights, tinted windows or other issues, all of which caused the vehicle to be unroadworthy.
Ask HJ
Do I have to declare an accident to my insurer even if there's no claim?
I dinged a parked car. It was my fault and I saw that I left two scratches on their rear bumper and a patch of scuff marks on my front bumper. I left a note for the owner. The wwner phoned and was adamant they wanted to go through insurance and not sort it out privately. So I reported the accident to my insurance. I did ask about claiming for my damage, which is just some scuffs on corner of the my bumper. To my surprise they said it was not economically viable to fix, so If I did claim, they would offer me (after excess) £3.5k for the car (2010 Subaru Impreza RX 2.0) or I buy the car back and I get £2.8k but car is now Cat N. I was hoping to sell the car privately for £3k.
As I have reported the accident, and as my fault, even if no claim from the other party comes through, it will still be on my profile and for any future insurance premiums I will have to declare this? So thus my risk profile and likely premium cost will be higher for next 5 years or so?
Is reporting an accident just as bad for risk profile as an actual claim taking place? My insurer didn't want to confirm these. I couldn't get a straight answer.
I would ultimately prefer to not have any marker or something I have to disclose as I know that most likely will mean the risk algorithm will make my premium sky rocket. But if it is too late for that, maybe I will just take the payout for the car, short term get a bit more cash than I was expecting and bite the bullet for higher premiums in future?
It’s important to remember that you should report any type of incident to your insurer. This applies whether you’re claiming or not. Once you have reported an incident, whether it’s considered a fault claim or not, it will be shown on your record. This is regardless of whether the other party makes a claim or any damage you claim for yourself.
This will stay on your record for the next 3 - 5 years and you will need to declare it when taking out insurance during this time. And this could have an impact on your future premiums within this timeframe.
Answered by Rhydian Jones
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