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Claiming against an uninsured or untraced driver in Scotland

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Claiming against an uninsured or untraced driver in Scotland

The Motor Insurers’ Bureau pays where the driver had no insurance or drove off and was never found. Its schemes cover Great Britain, but the Bureau’s own consumer guidance repeatedly gives the English answer, and on time limits that error costs Scottish claimants two years.

RFPublished by Rooney Family Law Limited, solicitors, regulated by the Law Society of Scotland · Last reviewed 14th August 2026

Two schemes, and the difference matters

The Motor Insurers’ Bureau operates two separate agreements with the Secretary of State, and which one applies is decided by a single fact: whether the driver who caused the accident can be identified.

Where the driver is known but uninsured, the Uninsured Drivers Agreement 2015 applies. It came into force on 1st August 2015 in relation to accidents occurring on or after that date. Where the driver cannot be traced, the Untraced Drivers Agreement 2017 applies, in force on 1st March 2017 for accidents on or after that date. Both cover Great Britain and both therefore apply in Scotland.

The two work very differently. The uninsured scheme runs alongside an ordinary court action against the driver. The untraced scheme is an application to the Bureau, investigated and decided by the Bureau, with an appeal to an arbitrator rather than to a court.

The time limit error to watch for

The Bureau’s public eligibility page tells claimants injured as minors that they have “until three years after your 18th birthday” to claim. That is the law of England and Wales. In Scotland the disregard in section 17(3) of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 ends when nonage ends, and nonage ends at sixteen. A Scottish claimant injured as a child ordinarily has until age 19. The three-year period can start later where the relevant facts were not known, under section 17(2)(b), and section 19A is a contested application to the court rather than a safety net to plan around. The Bureau’s own scheme document is right even where the website is not: clause 3 of the Untraced Drivers Agreement measures the time limit by reference to the 1973 Act where the claim arises in Scotland.

Where the driver is known but uninsured

You sue the driver, exactly as you would if they had been insured. The Bureau then satisfies the judgment. The trap is procedural and it is absolute: clause 13(1) of the 2015 Agreement provides that “MIB incurs no liability under MIB’s obligation unless MIB is joined from the outset as an additional Defendant to the relevant proceedings”.

In a Scottish action that means the Bureau must be convened as a defender when the action is raised, not added later when someone notices the driver has no policy. There is a limited relaxation where the claimant reasonably believed an identifiable insurer was on risk, but it depends on having given that insurer proper notice, telling the Bureau promptly when the belief changed, consenting to the Bureau being joined, and sending it the court papers. It is a rescue, not a routine.

The Bureau is not liable to a claimant who was voluntarily a passenger and who knew or had reason to believe that the vehicle had been stolen or unlawfully taken, or that it was being used without insurance. Clause 8(3) treats certain circumstances as proof of that knowledge, and the burden of proving it rests on the Bureau. This is explained from the passenger’s side on claiming as a passenger.

Two further exclusions catch people out. There is no liability where the injury or damage was caused by, or in the course of, an act of terrorism within the meaning of section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and none where an insurer is entitled to recover its outlay from the claimant under section 151(8) of the Road Traffic Act 1988. For property damage, clause 11 caps the Bureau’s total liability for all claims arising from any one event at the specified property damage cap. Since 1st March 2017 that cap has been the sum specified in section 145(4)(b) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, currently £1,200,000: clause 4(d) of the 2017 Supplementary Uninsured Drivers Agreement replaced clause 11(3) with a reference to that section. The cap is an aggregate for all property damage liabilities arising from any one accident, not a limit for each claim.

Where the driver was never traced

Hit and run, and the driver who does not stop, fall under the 2017 Agreement. There is no defender to sue, so instead an application is made to the Bureau, which investigates the accident itself and decides both liability and the amount.

Clause 3 sets the conditions. The accident must have involved a motor vehicle on a road or other public place in Great Britain, the liability must be one required to be covered by Part VI of the Road Traffic Act 1988, the person liable must be unidentified, and the claim must be made within the time limits that would apply to an action against an identified driver. For a Scottish accident, the Agreement points expressly at the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 rather than the Limitation Act 1980. The three year period, the date of knowledge alternative, and the disregard for nonage all apply in the ordinary Scottish way.

Property damage under the untraced scheme is heavily restricted

Clause 7(1) provides that the Bureau is not liable for damage to property caused by an unidentified vehicle unless an award for significant personal injury has been paid to a claimant in respect of the same event, and the property loss exceeds the specified excess. The specified excess is £400. A damaged car alone, with nobody seriously hurt, is not covered.

If the Bureau refuses the application, or awards less than the claimant thinks right, the appeal is not to a sheriff. Clause 15 gives a right to refer the decision to arbitration, and the arbitrator is appointed by the Secretary of State from a panel of senior counsel. The arbitrator decides on written submissions unless an oral hearing is sought, and the decision is final and binding, enforceable through the courts if the Bureau does not comply.

What you must do at the scene and afterwards

Both schemes depend on evidence the Bureau can check, and an untraced application depends on it almost entirely. Report the accident to the police and obtain the incident reference. Note the registration if any part of it was seen, the make, colour and direction of travel. Identify witnesses at the time rather than hoping to find them later. Photograph the locus, the damage and any debris. Ask about cameras: private premises, buses, and other drivers’ dashboard cameras have all been the difference between an award and a refusal.

Get medical attention and make sure the injury is recorded. Under the untraced scheme, the significance of the personal injury is not merely a matter of degree but a condition of any property damage award.

The Scottish points on a Bureau claim

The schemes are Great Britain-wide, but everything around them is Scots law, and the differences are real.

Damages are assessed as solatium and patrimonial loss, not as general and special damages, and the fixed whiplash tariff has nothing to do with it. Part 1 of the Civil Liability Act 2018 extends to England and Wales only under section 13(1), so a soft tissue injury in a hit and run on a Scottish road is valued individually.

Where the claim proceeds as a court action against an identified uninsured driver, the Scottish procedural framework applies in full: the compulsory pre-action protocol under the Act of Sederunt (Sheriff Court Rules Amendment) (Personal Injury Pre-Action Protocol) 2016 for claims up to £25,000, the exclusive competence of the sheriff court up to £100,000 under section 39 of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, the option of the National Personal Injury Court at Edinburgh, and the protection against an award of expenses in section 8 of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018. The protocol does not apply where the accident or other circumstance giving rise to liability occurred before 28th November 2016, or where the claimant is not represented by a solicitor. The £25,000 figure fixes the scope of the compulsory protocol rather than an absolute ceiling: under paragraph 4, where the estimate rises above it the claimant must tell the defender, and the parties may agree to carry on following the protocol voluntarily.

An untraced application is not a court action, so that protection against expenses does not arise in the same way. It is one of several reasons why the two routes should not be treated as interchangeable.

Sources

This page is general information about the law of Scotland and is not advice on your circumstances. Time limits are strict and the consequences of missing one cannot be undone. Take advice on your own case.