Uninsured driving convictions in Hampshire, including Portsmouth, up 73 per cent in a year as fine falls below cost of cover
Courts convicted 1,850 drivers in the Hampshire force area, which covers Portsmouth, of driving without insurance in 2025, new analysis of Ministry of Justice records shows. That is 12.2 convictions for every 10,000 vehicles on the area's roads, below the England and Wales average and the 28th highest rate of the 42 police force areas in England and Wales.
Convictions in the area were up 73.1 per cent on 2024 and up 13.5 per cent on 2019. The average fine was £499, and 21.7 per cent of those convicted were disqualified from driving.
Across England and Wales, courts convicted 76,983 drivers of having no insurance in 2025, up 7.0 per cent on 2024 and the second year in a row the figure has risen. The average fine was £467, 97.5 per cent of those convicted were fined and 21.9 per cent were disqualified. The average annual premium paid for car insurance is £566, according to the Association of British Insurers, so for many drivers the fine for being caught is now lower than the cost of a year's cover.
How Hampshire compares with neighbouring force areas
Sussex: 19.3 per 10,000 vehicles, 2,062 convictions, up 10.2 per cent on 2024, 17th of 42.
Hampshire: 12.2 per 10,000 vehicles, 1,850 convictions, up 73.1 per cent on 2024, 28th of 42.
Dorset: 12.2 per 10,000 vehicles, 665 convictions, down 2.9 per cent on 2024, 29th of 42.
Wiltshire: 10.4 per 10,000 vehicles, 725 convictions, up 52.0 per cent on 2024, 33rd of 42.
Surrey: 9.1 per 10,000 vehicles, 737 convictions, down 4.3 per cent on 2024, 40th of 42.
England and Wales: 20.8 per 10,000 vehicles, 76,983 convictions, up 7.0 per cent on 2024.
Police can seize a vehicle driven without insurance at the roadside. Hampshire Police seized 10,558 vehicles for the offence between 2018 and September 2022, according to a freedom of information request by the AA. The Home Office confirmed to Parliament in November 2025 that it no longer collects seizure figures centrally, so no later count exists.
Chris Richards, founder of Temp Insurance UK, said: "A fine that averages less than a year's premium, handed to almost everyone and paired with a ban for fewer than one in four, is a price list rather than a deterrent. Drivers in Portsmouth who borrow a car can now get cover from an hour upwards on a phone, so there is no practical reason left to drive uninsured, yet the numbers are moving the wrong way."
Readers can compare every police force area, with sixteen years of data, on Temp Insurance UK's uninsured driving map.
The figures are from the Ministry of Justice's court outcomes data for driving without insurance, 2010 to 2025, attributed to the police force area of the sentencing court, with rates per 10,000 licensed vehicles from Department for Transport statistics. A high rate reflects enforcement activity as well as offending. England and Wales only.