What’s the most frequently asked question our helpdesk receives? By some distance it’s the MID.

So here’s our essential guide to all things related to the Motor Insurance Database – enjoy!

 

  1. The MID is a record of all vehicles insured in the UK – it’s mission is “to ensure that vehicles driven on our roads are insured at all times”
  2. MID holds details on all UK insured vehicles : over 30 million private vehicles and 4 million commercial vehicles
  3. The police and the DVLA use the MID to tackle uninsured driving, and if necessary remove uninsured vehicles from UK roads
  4. It is estimated that there are still around 1 million uninsured vehicles in the UK, and that cost of these to every honest motorists is £30 a year
  5. That £30 goes to fund payments to victims of uninsured drivers made by the Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB)
  6. The police use Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) to check the MID – it receives over 75,000 enquiries a day from the police
  7. Data is uploaded to the MID by insurance companies (& their authorised representatives) – they have 7 days to upload private policies, 14 days for commercial policies
  8. The MID is updated over 10,000 times an hour
  9. Zoomcover policies are uploaded to the MID every day – if you buy a policy before 5pm it is usually on the MID by 8pm the same day
  10. Because of the 7 day/14 day delay, MID is a snapshot and therefore if you’re not on the MID it doesn’t mean your uninsured – the only true proof of insurance is a valid certificate
  11. Individuals can carry out a free check of whether their vehicle is on the MID by using askMID.com
  12. You enter your Vehicle Registration Number, accept the terms of use and complete a Captcha statement – it takes about 20 seconds
  13. If you have been involved in an accident you can check whether someone else’s vehicle is insured using the askMID website (there’s an admin charge for this)
  14. If you do not use your car, and it is kept on private ground, you can declare it off road to the DVLA with a Statutory Off Road Notice (SORN)
  15. If DVLA records indicate your vehicle is taxed but it doesn’t appear on the MID, you’ll be sent an Insurance Advisory Letter (IAL)
  16. More than 2 million warning letters have been sent to motorists whose car was uninsured (and wasn’t SORN’d)
  17. If you fail to act on an IAL you may face a fixed penalty notice of £100, your vehicle being clamped, seized and disposed of, a prosecution and a maximum fine of £1,000
  18. More than 500 vehicles are seized every day and one person every three minutes is convicted for uninsured driving
  19. You don’t have to be driving to be caught : under Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) a car must be insured even if it is not being used (unless it has been SORN’d)
  20. There’s plenty more useful info on the MID, including your MIB Claims History, your MIAFTR Claims History and NCD Information – you can access these here.
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