This is a common question, and the answer is either “Both” or “Neither” depending on how you look at it!
To explain in a bit more detail, most UK car insurance policies cover a Named Driver in a Specified Vehicle. So in other words, your insurance covers you while you drive your car.
But that raises 2 important further questions :
1. does your insurance cover you while you drive another car? and
2. does your insurance cover someone else to drive your car?
The answer to the first question is “Sometimes” and we’ll go into this in more detail in the further FAQs on Driving Other Cars.
The answer to the second question is usually “No”, but there are a couple of exceptions where the answer might be “Yes”. These exceptions are :
a) if you have added the other driver as a Named Driver on your policy
b) if you have an Any Driver policy (these are very rare in the UK but you might have one if you have a motor policy linked to a High Net Worth household insurance contract)
The comments above apply to privately-owned cars in the UK – different rules apply to company cars which are owned by businesses. These are usually insured under Motor Fleet policies, so if you have the use of a Company Car be sure to check your company’s fleet policy to see who is allowed to drive the vehicle.