The MIB strategic objective is to significantly reduce the level and impact of uninsured driving in the UK. Further significant progress was made towards this aim during 2008 and continues today.
New claims reported to the Guarantee Fund in 2008 were lower than 2007 volumes, the levy called from Members for 2009 is less than the previous year for the first time in many years and £40m is being released to Members during the course 0f 2009. All of these reflect the considerable progress made in recent times.
However, we cannot afford to be complacent and with a recession firmly upon us the need for continued pressure to enhance the detection and enforcement activity on offenders has never been greater. In times of high unemployment and restricted spending capacity we must do everything possible to discourage the option of cutting costs by risking driving without insurance.
In this context it was welcome news when the Government finally announced their commitment to Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) towards the end of last year and the Consultation on the Regulations was finally launched in January of this year. The CIE project is now firmly launched by the Department for Transport (DfT), DVLA and MIB with the objective of introducing a new offence of ‘keeping a vehicle without insurance’. It is anticipated that the full implementation will be in 2011 although the communication programme will begin next year.
In the meantime the police remain on the front line in terms of enforcement with another year of increased numbers of vehicle seizures for no insurance. During 2008 the police removed something in the order of 185,000 from UK roads.
A fundamental component of our strategic objective is to ensure that the victims of negligent uninsured driving and of ‘hit and run’ motorists receive fair and prompt compensation. We are committed to improving customer service and performance in accordance with our customer charter. Last year saw the introduction of a customer engagement survey and it was pleasing to see the improvement in the level of customer satisfaction over the course of the year. The results improved from a 57% customer satisfaction score to 70% by the final quarter of the year.
Almost 64,000 claims were settled in 2008, 58% of these being Guarantee Fund claims. Once again this was in excess of the new claims received resulting in a further reduction in the outstanding portfolio.
I am confident that 2009 will be an exciting and challenging year for MIB with a number of major initiatives planned to enable us to take another significant step towards our goal.
Ashton West
Chief Executive