Operation Tutelage has already helped keep thousands of uninsured drivers off our roads. And now, it’s time to take our work with the police to the next level. Speaking to police officers at the National Tutelage Symposium on 19 April, James Dalton, MIB’s Chief Services Officer, has announced a further three years of funding from 2024.  

 

Keeping People Safe on Our Roads

Address to the National Tutelage Symposium

19 April 2023

Introduction

Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to join you today. It’s great to be with you to see the difference Tutelage is making in your world, as I know it has to the insurance industry.

 I’m still relatively new to MIB. Having joined as Chief Services Officer at the end of last year, I am excited to be leading our work with the police to tackle uninsured driving and to be contributing to making our roads safer. In my first few weeks, I’ve been engaging with Derek at National Roads Policing Operations and Intelligence (NRPOII) and my MIB colleagues, Paul Farley and Simon French, who many of you will know. I’ve also been out on the road with police officers, talking to them about their experience working with the MIB, how they would like us to evolve our services, and how we can collectively take our work with the police and Operation Tutelage to the next level.

In my remarks this morning, I want to:

• reinforce the core value proposition of Tutelage – why MIB, insurers and police are working together to keep uninsured drivers off our roads;
• share with you how I think we will be able to deliver even more; and
• offer some thoughts on how I think our work could evolve over the next few years.

Tutelage is about more than enforcing the law

My job comes with its challenges. But I can only imagine how challenging it is to knock on a door to tell a family that their son or daughter, sister or brother, mother or father has been killed or seriously injured in a road traffic collision. And the sad reality is that you and your colleagues need to do that every day.

Uninsured drivers are up to five times more likely to be involved in a fatal collision. 130 people are killed by uninsured drivers every year.

And at MIB, we provide support and compensation to around 350 people a year with the most serious injuries – many needing care and treatment for the rest of their lives. As important as enforcing the law is, fundamentally – Tutelage is about something bigger - what probably led many of you to join the Police in the first place. It is about protecting people from harm. Every vehicle seized through Tutelage helps make our roads safer. We also know that uninsured drivers are more likely to be involved in other forms of criminality. 50% of uninsured vehicles seized are driven by someone with a criminal record and who are 10 times more likely to have a drink driving conviction.

We all pay the price

Uninsured driving also has a significant economic cost. Over the years I have spent working in insurance, one of the things that has struck me is the injustice of uninsured driving. Most people are honest, law-abiding citizens who know that one of the costs associated with owning a vehicle is that they need to purchase insurance.

But we all know that there is a cohort of people who, for whatever reason, don’t purchase the insurance they are required to. And when those drivers cause collisions, it’s the MIB that funds the considerable financial cost. We pay more than £400 million a year in compensation to support people injured by uninsured and hit-and-run drivers. That vital service is funded through a compulsory levy on motor insurers.

So, in addition to the devastating human impact uninsured driving can have we also care deeply about the financial burden those who drive uninsured create for the insurance industry - a cost that makes insurance more expensive for all motorists. That’s hard to quantify, but we believe it’s in the region of £50 a year for every vehicle on the road. And in the context of a cost-of-living crisis where family budgets are under pressure, telling people they have to pay more than their fair share to cover those who are uninsured is a challenge.

So, if there is one thing I want you to take away from today, it’s this. A future where the current cost of uninsured driving is allowed to continue is not an option. We must continue to work together to make sure uninsured drivers have nowhere to hide.

This is only the beginning

We are committed, we are ambitious, and we are determined to achieve our vision of bringing an end to uninsured driving. There are still many challenges, but with the right investment, ambition, and focus, we will one day make that vision a reality.

And so, I am delighted to announce that we have secured a further three years of funding for the Operation Tutelage programme from 2024.

I hope that makes clear that we are committed to investing in the long-term success of Tutelage and that we see how valuable it’s going to be in continuing to keep dangerous drivers off the roads. Supported by a sustainable funding model, we want you to have the confidence to go further.

So, what does that mean for Tutelage and our police colleagues?

Greater certainty and a new strategy 

For the first time, we can give the police certainty that there will be funding for Tutelage until 2027.

With that sustainable funding model in place, I want to see us working together to build on what we have learned to date and create a national strategy that will make it even harder for uninsured drivers to avoid detection.

Greater expectation

With that increased financial certainty comes increased expectation. Our members in the insurance industry will want to see a return on their investment. There will be an expectation that the longer-term investment we are making in Tutelage delivers measurable results.

So, I want us to work together to create a set of clear and ambitious targets where you can hold me and the team at MIB to account for delivery but equally where I can be clear about the extent to which you have driven down the number of uninsured vehicles on the roads.

There are a number of things we are already working on:

MID changes

The scale and speed of change in the insurance market today is genuinely unprecedented. First launched in the late 1980s, the Motor Insurance Database (MID), the central record of UK motor insurance, was never designed for a market where motorists want to buy a policy for an hour and be on the road in minutes.

In November this year, the MID will move to a new and modern platform providing the technological foundation we need to be able us to respond to changing consumer expectations in the insurance market and enable us to make available the information you need on the police network faster.

Effective communications

One area where there is a clear need to work together is on effective communications, and we have great foundations to build on. We have a strong legislative underpinning and demonstrable delivery in the context of Tutelage, but there are still too many people who think that driving without insurance is worth the risk. The MIB, insurers, the Police and the Government need to work together to send a clear message that the chances of you getting caught have never been higher and that the consequences can be dire. An expensive fine, points on your licence, your car being seized and potentially crushed, being unable to drive; and having to explain a conviction for at least five years – all of which could affect your employment.

Conclusion

Let me finish by thanking you all for continuing to support Operation Tutelage. The police take an uninsured vehicle off the roads every three and a half minutes – 123,000 last year alone. That would not be possible without the strong working relationship between MIB, our insurance company members and the police. As we look ahead, certainty around the funding for Operation Tutelage, complemented by some of the improvements I’ve spoken about today will, I hope, enable us to develop a strategy to realise the full potential of what we’ve started. And I’m confident that, together, we will go from strength to strength.

Thank you.