The insurance industry has paid around £1m for the new advertising campaign, due to kick off tonight, to encourage motorists to take out cover.

Transport minister Mike Penning, speaking at today’s launch of the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) TV campaign to raise public awareness of the new Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) scheme to tackle uninsured driving, said that the advert had cost £1m to make and broadcast.

He admitted that the cost had been a “bitter pill to swallow” for the industry but said the Department for Transport (DfT) could not have financed the campaign from its own squeezed budget. The insurance industry funded MIB agreed to pay for the campaign in the absence of central government support.

Under CIE, which comes into force from June 20th, it will become an offence to keep an uninsured vehicle, rather than just to drive when uninsured.

Penning said that the campaign and the wider CIE crackdown would make motorists “think very hard” about continuing to drive without insurance.

He also said that the DfT was working with the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office to increase the level of fines for uninsured driving, which currently averages £180, according to the AA.

The first 30 second advert is due to appear on ITV1 during the break in this evening’s 7pm episode of ‘Emmerdale Farm’.

The MIB is planning to blitz the airwaves in the run up to June 20th when the first letters will go out to uninsured motorists, followed by another push in the autumn.

An MIB spokeswoman said the campaign would be focused on general interest programmes, like prime-time soaps, and programmes with a bigger young driver profile.

MIB chief executive Ashton West said that while CIE will not be a “cure all” it would enable the police to focus their attention on hard core offenders who were deliberately driving without insurance.

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