Drivers

Motorbike insurance with criminal convictions: what you must declare

Motorbike insurance with criminal convictions: declare unspent convictions if asked, never spent ones. How the 2023 rules decide when yours is spent.

If you are looking for motorbike insurance with criminal convictions, the rule is simple: you must answer the insurer's questions honestly and declare any unspent conviction they ask about, but you never have to declare a spent one. Whether your conviction is spent depends on the sentence you were given, your age when convicted and how long ago the sentence ended, and the rules changed in October 2023, so plenty of riders now have less to declare than they think.

This guide covers riders in England and Wales, where the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 sets the rules. Scotland has its own system, which is covered briefly further down.

What do you have to declare for motorbike insurance with criminal convictions?

The legal starting point is the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, which says it is your duty to "take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation to the insurer" when you take out or change a policy. In practice that means answering every question on the proposal truthfully and fully.

So what you declare depends on what you are asked. Bike insurers typically ask about:

• Motoring convictions, such as speeding, careless driving, drink or drug riding, or riding without insurance, usually shown by an endorsement code on your licence.
• Criminal convictions that are not motoring offences, such as theft, assault or drug offences. Some insurers ask about these and some do not.
• Pending prosecutions, if the form asks about them.

According to guidance from a leading criminal records charity, you only have to disclose convictions you are asked about, and if a form asks "have you ever had a conviction?" it should be read as asking about unspent convictions only.

Do I have to tell my insurer about a non-motoring conviction?

Only if the insurer asks and it is unspent. This is the question riders most often get wrong in both directions. Some leave off an unspent conviction for, say, a theft offence because "it has nothing to do with riding". Others declare a fine from ten years ago that stopped counting long ago.

Insurers that ask about non-motoring convictions are allowed to take them into account when deciding whether to offer cover and on what terms. If the question is there and your conviction is unspent, it has to go in your answer.

Spent convictions are different. Section 4 of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 says that when you are asked about your past, the question is treated as not relating to spent convictions, and you cannot be penalised for leaving them out. That applies whatever the wording on the form.

When does a criminal conviction become spent?

The time it takes for a conviction to become spent is called the rehabilitation period. It depends on the sentence or outcome, not on the offence itself. These are the current periods for England and Wales from the government's rehabilitation periods guidance:

A few points that catch people out:

• For prison sentences, the clock starts when the whole sentence ends, including any time on licence, not the day you are released.
• If you are convicted again while an earlier conviction is still unspent, neither becomes spent until the later end date has passed.
• Some sentences are never spent. These include life sentences, public protection sentences and prison sentences over four years for serious violent, sexual or terrorism offences.

What changed in October 2023?

Changes made by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 came into force on 28 October 2023. Before then, any prison sentence over four years could never become spent. Now, as the explanatory notes to the Act explain, most custodial sentences over four years become spent seven years after the sentence ends, unless they were for a serious violent, sexual or terrorism offence.

The new periods apply to existing convictions too, not just ones handed down after the change. If you last worked out your position before October 2023, it is worth working it out again, because a conviction you have been declaring on your bike insurance may now be spent.

Motoring convictions: endorsements, bans and the 11-year confusion

Motoring offences have two separate clocks, and mixing them up is common.

1. How long the endorsement stays on your licence. GOV.UK says most endorsements stay for 4 years, while drink and drug driving codes such as DR10 stay for 11 years from the date of conviction.
2. When the conviction becomes spent. For an adult, a driving endorsement is spent 5 years from conviction, and a ban is spent once it ends.

This means a drink riding conviction can be spent for insurance purposes while the endorsement is still visible on your licence. The same charity confirms that a spent endorsement does not need to be declared to an insurer, even if it remains on your record. If an insurer's question asks about anything showing on your licence, read it carefully, and if you are unsure whether it covers spent matters, ask the insurer or broker to confirm in writing.

Paying a fixed penalty notice is not a conviction, but the points it puts on your licence still count as an endorsement that motor insurers usually ask about.

What happens if you do not declare an unspent conviction?

Leaving out an unspent conviction you were asked about can cause serious problems later, usually when you make a claim. The charity explains that the insurer could:

• cancel the policy as if it never existed (normally refunding the premium, unless fraud is involved)
• refuse a claim or pay out less
• in some cases, take steps towards prosecution

Insurers can ask for a basic DBS certificate during a claim to check what you declared, but they can only hold you to convictions that were unspent when the policy started or renewed.

If you pick up a new conviction during the policy, check your policy wording. Some policies say you must report it straight away; otherwise, you would declare it when asked at renewal.

Finding insurance companies for drivers with convictions

Not every insurer covers riders with unspent convictions, and those that do vary in which convictions they accept. That is why many riders with a record use a specialist broker, who knows which insurers on their panel will look at convicted driving insurance and how each one treats different offences.

Things that usually affect whether you are offered cover and what it costs include:

• the type of conviction and how recent it is
• whether it involved driving or riding at all
• the bike, its engine size and where it is kept overnight
• your riding experience and licence type
• your claims history and any no claims bonus

Every insurer weighs these factors differently.

If you want to talk it through with someone, you can get convicted driver insurance quotes: you fill in a short form and a specialist FCA-authorised broker from the Kompare panel contacts you with quotes. Kompare does not give advice, so check that any policy you are offered fits your bike and how you use it. For cars and vans, the same principles are covered in our guides to convicted car insurance and convicted van insurance.

A quick way to check what to declare

1. Find your sentence or outcome and your age on the date of conviction.
2. Look up the period in the rehabilitation periods table.
3. Count from the right start date: the end of the whole sentence (including licence) for custody, or the conviction date for fines and endorsements.
4. Check whether any later conviction has extended the period.
5. Read each insurance question closely and declare what it asks about that is still unspent.

For example, an adult fined on 1 March 2025 for a non-motoring offence would have that conviction spent on 1 March 2026, and from then on would not need to declare it to any insurer.

Do the same rules apply in Scotland?

No. Scotland has its own disclosure periods. The idea is the same (a conviction becomes spent once its disclosure period has passed) but the periods and start dates differ. Riders convicted in Scotland can check the rules on mygov.scot or with Disclosure Scotland.