§ Mr. ChurchillTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the percentage of motor vehicles on the road that are(a) unlicensed, (b) do 333W not have a valid MOT certificate or (c) whose regular driver is uninsured; what these figures approximate to in terms of numbers of vehicles and drivers and how many prosecutions were undertaken in respect of each category in the most recent year for which figures are available.
§ Mr. KeyIn Great Britain there are 35 million drivers holding full or provisional driving licences and 24.8 million licensed vehicles.
It is estimated that there were 1.3 million unlicensed vehicles in use on the public road at the end of September 1992. In 1992–93 over 435,000 vehicle licence evaders were penalised either by prosecution—193,000 —or through out-of-court settlement—242,000—recover-ing £37.5 million in revenue. In addition it is estimated that 180,000 evaders relicensed their vehicles as a direct result of enforcement action recovering a further £14 million.
There is no reliable estimate of the percentage of motor vehicles on the road which do not have an MOT test certificate or whose regular driver is uninsured. In 1991, 253,813 persons were found guilty in England and Wales of vehicle insurance offences and in Scotland 15,816 drivers were found guilty of driving while uninsured. In the same period in Great Britain 141,450 persons were found guilty of vehicle test offences.