Background Vehicle registration and road traffic offences
54.In August 2004, the Department for Transport published a report (available at www.publications.dft.gov.uk) by Professor David Greenaway of the University of Nottingham into uninsured driving in the United Kingdom. Amongst the recommendations of the report was that ‘police forces should be given the power to seize and, in appropriate circumstances, destroy vehicles that are being driven uninsured’. The Government accepted this recommendation (Department for Transport news release 2004/0111, 11 August 2004) and in October 2004 the Department for Transport issued a consultation paper (‘Seizure of vehicles being driven uninsured’, available at www.dft.gov.uk (consultations)) to seek views on the detail of the powers to be conferred on the police.