Car insurance application record

catfish67

The moneysupermarket.com car insurance questionnaire (and thus also MSE's Compare+) asks, "Have you committed any driving offences or had any Fixed Penalty Notices in the last 5 years?" Do FPNs include penalty charge notices (PCNs) for moving traffic (as opposed to parking) contraventions? Strictly speaking a PCN is not the same as a FPN - it is a civil penalty for a contravention, whereas a FPN is an alternative to prosecution for a (criminal) offence. (For Greater London the distinction is made in the London Local Authorities and Transport for London Act 2003.)

The Help note on the questionnaire confuses the issue by saying, first "Insurers need to know about any driving offences you've been convicted of, including any Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) you've been issued for offences such as ...", but then saying, "Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) issued for parking offences don't have to be declared."

It would seem that one would be answering correctly if one did not declare a moving traffic PCN, but is that how the insurance companies interpret it?

Does anyone know?

Goudy

Yes as far as I'm aware a PCN is regarded as a civil matter not a criminal one and as such they do not go on you driving record.

PCN's are used by local authorities and are classed as a civil conviction which in the end is really just treated as a debt to the local authority.

FPN's are used in the law and if found guilty (convicted) will as classed as a criminal conviction.

Moving PCN's are issued for things like contravening yellow box junctions, no right/left turns, driving in bus lanes, not paying the ULEZ or congestion charges or the Dartford Crossing by local authorities and not the law. 

One or two moving PCN's might be classes as perhaps careless driving in the eyes of the law, but the local authority have dealt with it and not the law.

You can't be punished twice, so if the law take it up as a FPN, the local authority can't continue with the PCN and vice versa.

As far as your insurance is concerned, it's no more than a parking ticket really.
It's up to you if you try to declare it but usually on insurance application forms they ask for any motoring convictions and then the appropriate code from a list, like speeding (SP) or drink driving (DR).

As there's no codes for moving PCN's you can't fill it in, so you can take it as they don't want to know about any PCN's.

catfish67

Thank you, Goudy. That's very clear and helpful.