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Under the impression that it might be cheaper locking your car up and taking the bus rather than face the expense of having to insure it?

You might have to think again.

The latest idea from the government is to clamp and then seize any uninsured cars, regardless of whether they are being driven or not.

The idea is a draconian extension of the relatively new rules that gave police the power to confiscate the cars of uninsured drivers at the roadside. Before that, officers could only issue a court summons which allowed uninsured drivers to stay on the road as well as keep their motors until they went to court.

As ever, the proposed tougher new rules aren’t being introduced to penalise law-abiding motorists but are intended to tackle the estimated two million uninsured rivers who the Government says are responsible for 160 deaths a year.

No-one could argue with that. But if the new rules do come in, forgetting to renew your motor policy before jetting off on holiday could result in a nasty surprise on your return.

Although still only under discussion, the new law will make it an offence to be the registered keeper of an uninsured car, whether or not the vehicle is being used and regardless of whether it has a valid tax disc or is kept on private property.

The only way to avoid a fine will be to go through the bureaucratic process of making a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

Under the new system, every driver’s insurance details will be checked by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency at least once a month and where a policy has lapsed, the DVLA will initially send out a reminder letter.

If you ignore it, a fixed penalty – probably of £100 - will be issued. Ignore this (as around a third of people receiving such a penalty do) and the result is likely to be a summons to court with a £1,000 fine and a criminal record to boot.

There a plus side to this proposal that goes beyond trying to keep uninsured and often dangerous drivers off the road.

The Department of Transport reckons uninsured rivers add an average £30 to every motorist’s annual premium, amounting to a massive £400m extra that lawful drivers need to find to cover the sins of those who choose not to pay.

Whether the new law, if introduced, will have a real impact on lowering premiums for law-abiding drivers has yet to be seen. But any measure than reduces the overall cost of insurance, has to be a good thing.

The flip side, however, will be that lawful drivers will have to be very careful to make sure there are no gaps in insurance cover. And there are financial implications with this.

Maybe you’re one of the few who are careful to take advantage of being away over the summer holidays after your insurance has lapsed only to renew your policy on your return.

Much more likely, however, is that you’ll be tempted to pay your annual premium by direct debit so there is no chance of your missing that all important renewal date. That’s fine as it goes. One of direct debit’s most popular features is that it allows you to “forget” all about the hassles of renewal.

The problem is that it also encourages people to forget about looking for the best deal.

The rational behind all of this is not only to

Where an insurance policy has lapsed, the DVLA will initially send out a reminder letter.
If no action is taken by the motorist after around a month the DVLA will then issue a fixed penalty notice imposing a £100 fine - which will be reduced to £50 if paid within 21 days.
If the fine is ignored - as is the case in around one third of on the spot penalties - stronger steps could be taken including taking the offender to court, where conviction could lead to a maximum £1,000 fine and a criminal record.
The maximum fine would only be imposed by the court on persistent offenders or those who showed no intention of insuring their car.
There will be a further penalty for those who leave their uninsured vehicle in the street, with the car impounded or clamped. However, the Department for Transport estimates that 43 per cent of households in Great Britain have neither a garage or a driveway, forcing car owners to park on the street.

Motorists who leave their cars uninsured face fines of up to £1,000 even if they are locked away in a garage or kept on a driveway.

Taxed but uninsured cars left on a public road could be clamped or seized under the new laws which are being unveiled by the Government. The draconian new powers are intended to tackle an estimated two million uninsured motorists who, the Government says, are responsible for 160 deaths a year. But the changes have angered civil liberty campaigners and also alarmed motoring groups who fear that law-abiding motorists could be penalised for innocent mistakes, such as allowing their insurance to lapse while they are on holiday.

At the moment, a motorist is only committing a crime if he or she drives while uninsured. The new law will make it an offence to be the registered keeper of an uninsured car, whether or not the vehicle is being used and regardless of whether it has a valid tax disc or is kept on private property.

The only way to avoid a fine will be to go through the bureaucratic process of making a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. This can only be done if the owner can find somewhere to store the vehicle. Uninsured vehicles left in the road would be clamped or seized, penalising those without driveways or private garages.

Some have voiced concerns the scheme will do little to stop unscrupulous drivers who never bother to insure vehicles, but could instead hit law-abiding motorists who unwittingly allow their insurance to lapse when they are working abroad or taking a holiday. It will rely on the motor insurance industry database that is currently used by the police.

A spokesman for the RAC Foundation said: “In principle this scheme is a good thing. But it must be flexible and take into account genuine situations where people have been unable to reinsure their cars – perhaps they are on holiday or have been called away on a family emergency.
“The point must be to catch criminals not alienate honest drivers.”
“This will hit innocent people,” added Gus Hosein, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and policy director at Privacy International.
“It doesn’t make sense. If a car is not being driven, why does it have to be insured? Many people in Britain don’t have access to a garage, what are they supposed to do if, for example, they are going away for a few months?
“This will hit law abiding people. You think you need insurance for activities you are actually doing. You don’t expect to have to be insured just because of a Government whim.”

Under the new system, every motorist's insurance details will be checked by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency at least once a month. Where an insurance policy has lapsed, the DVLA will initially send out a reminder letter. If no action is taken by the motorist after around a month the DVLA will then issue a fixed penalty notice imposing a £100 fine - which will be reduced to £50 if paid within 21 days. If the fine is ignored - as is the case in around one third of on the spot penalties - stronger steps could be taken including taking the offender to court, where conviction could lead to a maximum £1,000 fine and a criminal record. The maximum fine would only be imposed by the court on persistent offenders or those who showed no intention of insuring their car. There will be a further penalty for those who leave their uninsured vehicle in the street, with the car impounded or clamped.

However, the Department for Transport estimates that 43 per cent of households in Great Britain have neither a garage or a driveway, forcing car owners to park on the street. In major cities, such as London, the figure is far higher with only 27 per cent having a garage in the capital.

Theresa Villiers, the Tory transport spokesman said: “The Government has serious questions to answer about a proposal which looks as it will treat those who do not have access to off-road parking much more harshly than those that do.
“Drivers have had to put up with so much punishment from Labour which makes it doubly important to ensure that changes to the law on uninsured drivers hold the balance fairly between different groups of motorists.”

The only way to legally leave a car uninsured will be to make a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN). This requires the motorist either to apply online, by post or in a post office and to crucially, to have a place to store the car off a public highway. According to the latest figures, 1.79 million such declarations were made last year. While the AA recognised the need to crack down on uninsured motorists, it voiced fears about how the proposals would be implemented.

“The insurance industry needs to work with Government to ensure its database holds the right information at the right time – so that for example, law-abiding motorists are not wrongly accused of being without insurance especially if they change insurers,” a spokesman said.
“We also have concerns that people who are abroad or in hospital for a long time when their policy runs out, could fall foul of this. There is no guarantee that there will be anyone else to do the paperwork for them, especially if they live alone.”

The move is also likely to fuel concerns over the growth of the “surveillance state”, coming in the wake of the row over the Government’s new vetting regime for those in regular contact with children or vulnerable adults. There have been concerns raised about the reliability of Government databases including that operated by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

There have also been problems with a number of other Whitehall computer systems at an array of departments from the Department of Health to Home Office. But the Department for Transport defended the plans. “Each year uninsured and untraced drivers kill 160 people and injure 23,000, and add around £30 a year to every motorist’s insurance - amounting to more than £400m a year in additional premiums.
“We’ve already taken action to tackle this – increased police powers mean more than 400 uninsured vehicles are seized every day - but we need to do more to force this irresponsible minority off the roads. These new measures will do this, freeing up more police time to tackle the hard core of offenders while including sufficient safeguards to protect law-abiding motorists.”