A PIONEERING campaign to clamp down on drivers without insurance is being rolled out nationwide.

In the last six months the Joint Roads Policing Unit run by Hampshire Constabulary has caught more than 2,500 vehicles across Hampshire and Thames Valley, which were identified as having no insurance.

Set up in March 2017, Operation Tutelage was set up in response to the growing problem of uninsured vehicles being used on the roads of Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Since it launched, police have seized 113 vehicles where the owner failed to comply to letters sent out to drivers without insurance.  

This operation has now been presented to officers across the country and is set to be adopted nationally by many other police forces.

The efficiency of this operation means that one officer can achieve far more in the time period of a year, than a single patrol officer looking at uninsured vehicles can.


Inspector Simon Hills, from the Joint Roads Policing Unit, which forms part of the Joint Operations Unit, said: “It is estimated that there are currently more than 48,000 uninsured vehicles across the five counties of Hampshire and Thames Valley and whilst the percentage of uninsured vehicles in our region is below the national average, it is still a cause for concern.

“It is vital for us to reduce the number of uninsured vehicles on the roads.  We know that uninsured vehicles account for a proportionately higher number of collisions, and are more likely to be linked with ‘fatal four’ offences, such as drink and drug driving. Uninsured vehicles also create a cost burden to those who buy insurance with an estimated £15 from each private car policy being used to pay for uninsured losses each year.

“The 80 per cent compliance rate is very pleasing. We have taken a neighbourhood approach to engaging with the motoring community and this lighter touch engagement has led to some very positive feedback, including a lady who insured her daughter’s car by mistake instead of her own, a gentleman who insured his wife’s car twice but forgot to insure his own and a gentleman who insured his house twice but forgot to insure his car. We also had some lovely letters from people who had genuinely just forgotten to renew their policies and were so grateful that we had warned them but not prosecuted them."