Driving in clean air zones on short-term cover

Emissions charges are not an insurance matter

No insurer pays a clean air zone charge, and no policy — annual or short-term — covers one. A charge is levied on the vehicle's keeper by the operating authority, not on the driver and not on the policy. If you drive somebody else's older car into a charging zone, the registered keeper receives the bill.

That matters on borrowed vehicles more than on your own. Agree with the owner before you set off who is paying, because the penalty for a missed charge lands on them and is materially larger than the charge itself.

Which zones are currently operating

The zones differ in what they charge, which vehicles they charge, and how they are enforced. The list below reflects the schemes running at the time this page was last reviewed; always check the operating authority before travelling, because rates and boundaries change.

• London ULEZ — covers all London boroughs. Petrol vehicles generally need to meet Euro 4 and diesels Euro 6 to avoid a daily charge.
• London Congestion Charge — a separate central London charge that applies on top of ULEZ during charging hours.
• Birmingham, Bristol, Bath, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Bradford, Tyneside and Greater Manchester operate Clean Air Zones of varying classes; some charge private cars, some only taxis, vans, buses and HGVs.
• Scotland operates Low Emission Zones in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen. These do not charge — non-compliant vehicles are banned outright and receive a penalty for entering.

Why the vehicle's age comes up in your details

We ask for the registration and look the vehicle up against UK vehicle data, which returns the fuel type, engine size, first registration date and vehicle class. Insurers use those fields for their own rating, not for emissions purposes, but they are the same fields that determine whether a vehicle is charged in a zone.

An older diesel therefore tends to show up twice: it can attract a higher indicative estimate because of the way insurers rate older, larger-engined vehicles, and it is more likely to be chargeable in a zone. Neither is a decision we make — insurers set their own prices and authorities set their own charges.

Scotland's LEZ rules work differently

Scottish Low Emission Zones are enforced by penalty rather than by a daily charge, and the penalty escalates for repeat entries within a rolling period. There is no way to pay to enter in a non-compliant vehicle, so a borrowed car that does not meet the standard simply cannot be driven into the zone lawfully.

If a journey involves a Scottish city centre, check the vehicle against the relevant scheme before you arrange cover rather than afterwards.