With the new year comes new revelations in the insurance and breakdown cover UK industries, and the latest revelation to come from parliament is that road safety minister Mike Penning is considering plans that will allow motor insurance and breakdown cover UK firms to gain access to records from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (the DVLA).

Mr Penning had been speaking before the Transport Select Committee, and noted that the prospect of providing increased knowledge of driver records to insurers was being considered.  However, he did add that the driver’s consent would have to be given due to data protection laws.

With the data protection having to be considered in any potential legislation, ministers have voiced the possibility that the permission from drivers could be placed on an insurance proposal form – in a similar manner that many employers request a CRB check in advance on their application form.

The aim of this is that insurers would be able to then decline insurance to any driver who had a previous driving conviction that they were unprepared to declare or lied about in the lead up to obtaining their insurance.

In addition to this news, Mr Penning also noted that he and his department were investigating the possibility of learner drivers being allowed on motorways, pending the examination of ways that learners could deal with handling faster motorway traffic.

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