Vehicles seized by the MPS for not having a valid motor insurance policy
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.025897
I note you seek access to the following information:
Split by calendar 2018 to date, how many vehicles have been seized by your force for not having a valid motor insurance policy.
Decision
I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.
Please find below information pursuant to your request above.
Split by calendar 2018 to date, how many vehicles have been seized by your force for not having a valid motor insurance policy.
To provide context, it is relevant to explain that vehicles seized by the police for no insurance under S.165A of The Road Traffic Act 1988 (RTA) are recorded under a user defined categories of D6 and D7 (where also suspected of being stolen) on our car pound computer system.
Categories D6 and D7 also include vehicles that are seized under S.165A RTA for being driven otherwise than in accordance with a driving licence. The way the MPS captures data, there is no simple/accurate method of delineating those vehicles which have been specifically seized for no insurance from those that have been seized for being driven otherwise than in accordance with a driving licence.
We have a data field within our computer system that is used by the operator when creating the removal request which details the reason for the removal. This field often include reference to either “not in accordance”, “no insurance” or both. However, it is important we note there are also a number of D6 and D7 records where this field has not been completed, so the reason is unknown.
Please find below a dataset which meets your current request based on those category D6 and D7 records where we have been able to attribute them specifically to being seized for “no insurance” through the use of the “reason for removal field”. This data is provided subject to the above data caveats.
| Seized | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| D6 | 14360 | 13285 | 12508 | 13648 | 8258 |
| D7 | 191 | 204 | 162 | 115 | 79 |
| Total | 14551 | 13489 | 12670 | 13763 | 8337 |