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Driving Offences

Volume 482: debated on Tuesday 4 November 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were (a) arrested and (b) convicted for driving without a licence or insurance in (i) North West Cambridgeshire constituency, (ii) Cambridgeshire, (iii) the East of England and (iv) England and Wales in each of the last five years. (229290)

The information requested on arrests is not collected centrally.

The arrests collection held by the Home Office covers arrests for recorded crime (notifiable offences) only, broken down at a main offence group level, covering categories such as violence against the person and robbery. The offence of driving without a licence or insurance is not a notifiable offence and does not form a part of the arrests collection.

Available information on convictions held by the Ministry of Justice, for the offences of 'driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence' and 'using a motor vehicle uninsured against third party risks', from 2002-06 (latest available) are provided in the following tables. 2007 data should be available end of November 2008.

Data are available at police force area level only.

Table A: Findings of guilt at magistrates courts for the offence of 'using a motor vehicle uninsured against third party risks1, within Cambridgeshire police force area, the East of England and England and Wales, 2002-06

Number of offences

2002

20032

2004

2005

2006

Cambridgeshire

2,298

2,728

2,678

2,827

3,430

East of England

21,569

24,917

23,965

23,464

23,430

England and Wales

288,499

323,367

322,814

287,198

265,749

1 An offence under the Road Traffic Act 1988 s. 143(2)

2 As from 1 June 2003, 'driving a motor vehicle while uninsured against third party risks' became a fixed penalty offence.

Notes:

1. It is known that for some police force areas, the reporting of court proceedings in particular those relating to summary motoring offences may be less than complete.

2. Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their limitations are taken into account when those data are used.

Table B: Findings of guilt at magistrates courts for the offence of driving without a licence1 within Cambridgeshire police force area, the East of England and England and Wales, 2002-06

Number of offences

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Cambridgeshire

1,265

1,399

1,591

1,649

1,826

East of England

11,834

13,859

14,016

13,681

12,645

England and Wales

170,910

196,848

207,040

183,788

160,727

1 An offence under the Road Traffic Act 1988 s. 87 (1) and (2) as amended.

Notes:

1. It is known that for some police force areas, the reporting of court proceedings in particular those relating to summary motoring offences may be less than complete.

2. Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their limitations are taken into account when those data are used.