The law on Car Insurance

Unless you have declared a vehicle “off the road” with a ‘Statutory off Road Notification’ (SORN) with the DVLA, it must be insured at all times. It’s illegal to drive a vehicle on a road or in a public place without at least 3rd party insurance.

Since June 2011, if you have registered a vehicle in your name but not insured it (or haven’t made a SORN for the vehicle), your record will not appear on the Motor Insurance Database (MID). The database is constantly being used as part of the Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) scheme to identify potentially uninsured vehicles and enables the police to detect uninsured drivers.

Even if the vehicle itself is insured, if you’re not correctly insured to drive it you could get penalised. The police could give you a fixed penalty of £300 and 6 penalty points if you’re caught driving a vehicle you’re not insured to drive.

If the case goes to court you could get an unlimited fine or disqualified from driving. The police also have the power to seize, and in some cases, destroy the vehicle that’s being driven uninsured.

Check your vehicle on the Motor Insurance Database (MID)

It’s now possible, and very easy, to check that your vehicle is registered on the MID.

You can do this by visiting ownvehicle.askmid.com and following the instructions, which allow you to confirm quickly and easily that your vehicle insurance details have been entered. All you have to do is enter your vehicle’s registration number and to confirm that the vehicle is registered, owned or insured by either you or your employer and regularly driven by you. Then press enter and the system will instantly tell you whether or not a policy for your vehicle is recorded on the system.