More than 350,000 company vehicles across 40,000 insurance policies have yet to be logged on the Motor Insurance Database, according to the Motor Insurers Bureau, which is about to step up prosecution action against those that fail to supply data.

The MID is a tool that allows the police to instantly check if a vehicle is insured, and phase one of the scheme focused on private cars. With 95% of private vehicles now on, the attention has turned to business and trade vehicles, and the MIB has issued new guidelines to fleets, produced in conjunction with the BVRLA and ACFO.

Trevor Harrison, the MIB's head of technical, said the database currently has 40,000 policies with no vehicles attached to them, which is an estimated 350,000 vehicles. On top of that, he estimates another 200,000 existing records haven't been updated when cars have been either acquired or de-fleeted.

But confusion is likely to arise over whose responsibility it is to enter details, as some insurers will supply data directly to the Bureau, while others will pass on responsibility to fleet operators. The motor insurers' information centre has a list of which company does what (see panel, right).

Harrison said: "We've recently taken steps to make sure brokers and insurance companies are aware of the procedure. Having said that, we're aware of a number of policyholders that haven't notified the database, and these cases may result in prosecution."

If a fleet fails to register its details, as well as the threat of prosecution, its drivers could be stopped by police number plate checks that will flag that the car is missing from the database.

There's no financial cost to fleets, only the administration time taken to input insurance policy details onto the system.

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