A High court Judge has backed the calls of a car crash victims’ charity for compulsory third-party insurance to be extended to vehicles on private land.

Delivering his judgment in RoadPeace v Secretary of State for Transport & Ors [2017] EWHC 2725 (Admin) last week, Mr Justice Ouseley agreed that domestic law should be changed to make insurance compulsory for an off-road vehicle driven in a way ‘consistent with its normal purpose’.

He said he saw ‘no reason why a declaration [of the incompatibility of domestic law with the EU Directive on Motor Insurance] should not be made’.

The EU Directive provides that compensation schemes should treat victims of uninsured drivers no less favourably than those of insured drivers. Under UK law, however, the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) will only compensate victims of uninsured drivers in circumstances where insurance was compulsory.

Despite backing legislative change, Ouseley J rejected RoadPeace’s argument that current UK legislation unlawfully excludes some victims from the protection of the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) and/or unlawfully restricts the amount of compensation they are entitled to.

Vijay Ganapathy, partner at Leigh Day, which acted for RoadPeace, said: ‘Many who have been injured by uninsured drivers of other types of vehicles such as farm tractors have been denied compensation by the MIB. Thankfully therefore this judgment means the MIB are less able to advance this argument.’

Motor insurance campaigner, solicitor Dr Nicholas Bevan welcomed the judgment but described it as ‘a curate’s egg’.