The Home Office figures also reveal that the number of uninsured drivers coming before the courts has fallen since 1997 - and that is despite more drivers being willing to break the law. The number of prosecutions against uninsured motorists fell from 397,133 in 1997 to 391,783 in 2008 and is forecast to fall well below 390,000 in 2009 and beyond.

A Conservative spokesman on police matters, blamed the fall in prosecutions on the country's police forces being tied up by red tape and bureaucracy. But he claimed that the courts had no such excuse.

The police admit that driving uninsured is often a sign of other offenses such as driving without a licence or without road tax plus even more serious criminality. But, surprisingly, the courts are passing pitiful penalties. What are they thinking? Uninsured drivers are the scourge of the roads.

According to the Association of British Insurers uninsured drivers are 10 times more likely to have convictions for drinking and driving and 6 times more likely to be driving an un-roadworthy vehicle. Furthermore, the damage caused by uninsured drivers adds about 25 to 30 pounds on to the cost of the average annual car insurance premium.

The average fine of 181 pounds for uninsured driving is hardly a fifth of the average cost of buying comprehensive car insurance, which, according to the Automobile Association is 853 pounds. Government statisticians estimate there are in excess of two million uninsured vehicles on Britain's roads.

This means that around 1 in 15 motorists are driving without insurance. And these motorists are said by the insurance industry to be responsible for 375,000 accidents each year. It may be true that many are poor, among them young men and immigrants keen to get on the road, but unwilling to pay for insurance.

The Department for Transport has said that there was a rise of 100,000 uninsured drivers last year - with the total figure amounting to 6.5 per cent of all vehicles on the UK's roads.

It is against this background that the threat of jail was effectively lifted from uninsured drivers who kill while at the wheel. Current rules for judges stipulate that illegal drivers who cause death should normally escape with just community punishment. Even repeat offenders with a previous conviction for driving without insurance or without a licence, can avoid imprisonment under court directions on how to sentence drivers responsible for fatal accidents.

These rulings were handed down by the body that sets punishment benchmarks for judges and magistrates, the Sentencing Guidelines Council and applies to new motoring laws that for the first time include the charge of "causing death by driving whilst disqualified, unlicensed, or uninsured." Anyone found guilty faces a maximum penalty of two years in jail. Yet the courts have been instructed that only drivers who kill whilst banned should go to prison.