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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of uninsured vehicles in the UK; and how many vehicles were seized for unpaid insurance in each year since 2009-10.

Andrew Jones

Since 2011 the Government has had in place an insurance and compliance strategy, namely the Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) scheme operated by DVLA and the Motor Insurers Bureau, which aims to reduce the level of uninsured driving.

It is estimated that CIE has already helped reduce levels of uninsured driving from 1.4 million in 2010 to 1 million vehicles now.

The police have powers under Section 165A of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to seize a vehicle that is being used on a public road without motor insurance. How police enforce the law is an operational matter for their discretion.

The table below shows the number of vehicles seized by the police for driving without insurance.

Year	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
vehicles seized	180,000	150,000	140,000	137,000	135,000	116,000	121,000

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of (a) tolls and (b) fines related to non-payment of tolls were unpaid on the Dartford Crossing in each of the last three years; and what the cost to the public purse of unpaid fines was in each of those years.

Andrew Jones

A new payment system was introduced at the Dartford Crossing on 30 November 2014 known as Dart Charge. 93% of drivers are paying the charge on time and I understand that similar charging systems without barriers also do not achieve complete first time compliance. Cases of non-payment are followed up appropriately.

Year – Dart Charge	Proportion of crossings charges not paid	Proportion of unpaid Penalty Charge Notices	Value of unpaid Penalty Charge Notices
April 2015 – March 2016 (New system)	7.5%	Note 1	Note 1
30 November 2014 – March 2015 (New system)	6.1%	1.73%	£13,431,945.07
Year – Pre Dart Charge	Proportion of crossings where the charge has not been paid	Number of violations* and DTDs**	Value of unpaid road user charge from DTD passages (Not inclusive of money not recovered from violations as this historical data was not collected)
April 2014 – 30 November 2014	0.36%	107,449	£64,940
April 2013 – March 2014	0.34%	151,311	£85,828

Note 1 – The proportion of unpaid Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) for April 2015 to March 2016 and the subsequent cost to the public purse of unpaid PCNs for that year cannot be accurately determined at this point in time because around 275,000 of these PCNs were issued in 2016 and are still in the early stages of the enforcement process. Action is ongoing and can take many months to complete so the proportion of unpaid PCNs relating to 2015/16 and the cost to the public purse can be expected to change as a proportion will be paid over the coming months.

*Violation – Any crossing for which there is no valid payment eg tailgaters.

**DTD – Dockets used to be issued to personal users of the Crossing with no means of payment that were allowed passage at that time.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average waiting time for an assessment by the DVLA Drivers Medical Group was for (a) all drivers and (b) drivers requiring re-assessment on a regular basis on medical grounds in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Andrew Jones

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) deals with more than 600,000 medical driver licensing applications annually. The length of time taken to deal with an individual application depends on the medical condition and whether further information is required from medical professionals.

For the period April 2015 to March 2016, the average time for an assessment and a licensing decision to be made was 53 working days. Between April 2014 and March 2015, the figure was 58 working days.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps (a) his Department and (b) the DVLA is taking to increase the number of seizures of uninsured vehicles.

Andrew Jones

Since 2011 the Government has had in place an insurance and compliance strategy, namely the Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) scheme operated by DVLA and the Motor Insurers Bureau, which aims to reduce the level of uninsured driving.

It is estimated that CIE has already helped reduce levels of uninsured driving from 1.4 million in 2010 to 1 million vehicles now.

The police have powers under Section 165A of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to seize a vehicle that is being used on a public road without motor insurance. How police enforce the law is an operational matter for their discretion.

The table below shows the number of vehicles seized by the police for driving without insurance.

Year	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
vehicles seized	180,000	150,000	140,000	137,000	135,000	116,000	121,000