Effective from 16th December, the changes also mean that motorists will only need to tell DVLA once when they declare their vehicle off the road, rather than renewing their Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN every year.

Roads Minister Robert Goodwill said: ‘We want to make it as easy as possible for motorists to access government services.

‘Getting rid of needless bits of paper, making changes to free up motorists’ time, while saving money for the taxpayer, is all part of our commitment to get rid of unnecessary red tape.’

The changes to insurance checks have been made possible because DVLA regularly checks existing databases for insurance under Continuous Insurance Enforcement rules. DVLA’s records are compared regularly with the Motor Insurance Database to identify registered keepers of vehicles that have no insurance.

Ashton West, chief executive at the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) said: ‘The introduction of Continuous Insurance Enforcement in 2011 was always designed to provide a more robust and technology driven solution to ensuring that vehicles have insurance in place. The successful introduction of the new process by the DVLA and the MIB has enabled these changes to be made now, which will bring benefits to millions of motorists.’

The news follows last week’s announcement in Autumn Statement that the paper tax disc is being scrapped after nearly a century.