Motor Vehicles: Insurance

Mr. David Jones
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent assessment he has made of the accuracy of the Motor Insurance Database.

Dr. Ladyman
The accuracy of the Motor Insurance Database (MID) is solely the responsibility of the Insurance industry.

The latest figures (mid June) indicate that 94.4 per cent. of all appropriate records are provided to the Motor Insurance Database (MID) within seven days. This is in line with expectations to meet the target of 95 per cent. of all appropriate records provided to the Motor Insurance Bureau within seven days by 1 January 2008.

The police make extensive use of the MID to help identify vehicles being driven uninsured. They have had considerable success in removing uninsured vehicles from the road and although there have been occasional instances where a vehicle has been seized as a result of inaccurate data these are very rare and generally the MID is considered reliable for current enforcement purpose.