How Long Do Penalty Points Stay on Your Licence?

Two clocks run on the same penalty points

Ask how long points last and you'll usually get one answer: 4 or 11 years. That's true, but it's only half the picture. Two different clocks run on every endorsement, and they end at different times.

The first clock is retention. Gov.uk says endorsements must stay on your driving record for 4 or 11 years, depending on the offence. For that whole period, the offence code and its points are visible on your record.

The second clock is shorter. You can be disqualified if you build up 12 or more penalty points within a period of 3 years. Drivers call this totting up. That window is 3 years, however long the points themselves are retained.

So a point can still sit on your record after it has stopped counting towards a ban. Visible and countable are different things.

One note on the word "licence". The points don't really live on the plastic photocard. They sit on your DVLA driving record, the electronic file behind it. That's the record gov.uk tells you to view to see your points and when they'll be removed.

How long an endorsement stays on your driving record

Every endorsable offence has a code, such as SP30 or IN10. The code and its penalty points stay on your driving record for 4 or 11 years. Which period applies depends on the offence group.

Most codes get 4 years. That group covers the everyday offences.

Speeding (the SP codes), driving uninsured (IN10), licence offences (LC) and vehicle-condition offences (CU). Also traffic signs and signals (TS), motorway rules (MW10), pedestrian crossings (PC), accident offences (AC) and careless driving (CD10 to CD33). For all of those, the code table runs the 4 years from the date of the offence.

Gov.uk's separate retention page adds a rule the table doesn't spell out. Where the offence results in disqualification, the 4 years runs from the date of conviction instead. So if you were banned, work from the conviction date.

A smaller 4-year group runs from the date of conviction instead. It includes BA40 and BA60, CD80 and CD90, and TT99. It also includes the dangerous driving codes DD10, DD40, DD60, DD80 and DD90.

A further set has a split rule: DR40, DR50, DR60, DR70, DR90 and DG40. Those stay for 4 years from the offence, or 4 years from conviction where a disqualification is imposed.

The 11-year group runs from the date of conviction. It covers the core drink-driving codes (DR10, DR20, DR30, DR31, DR61). The core drug-driving codes (DG10, DG60, DR80) are covered too. It also covers CD40 to CD70, causing death by careless driving while unfit through drink or drugs, over the limit, or failing to supply a specimen.

Notice that not every DR code gets 11 years. The in-charge and failure-to-co-operate variants listed above sit in the 4-year groups. "Drink-driving points last 11 years" is only true code by code, so check the code, not the headline.

A few figures from the same gov.uk table are worth having. AC10 (failing to stop after an accident) and AC20 (failing to report within 24 hours) each carry 5 to 10 points. We cover both in what to do after a hit and run.

IN10, driving uninsured, carries 6 points by fixed penalty and up to 8 in court. MS90, failing to name the driver, carries 6 points. Our Notice of Intended Prosecution guide covers how that one catches people.

There's one edge case for Great Britain. If you're disqualified while driving in the Republic of Ireland, a mutual recognition (MR) code applies. The disqualification is valid in Great Britain, and the code stays on the record 4 years from conviction.

Totting up: when points count towards a ban

Gov.uk's wording is that you can be disqualified if you build up 12 or more penalty points within a period of 3 years. The rule behind it sits in the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988.

What matters is how the 3 years is measured. It runs from offence date to offence date. Not conviction to conviction. And not from the date the points reached your record.

Section 29(2) of the Act draws the line. Points for an offence committed more than three years before another "shall not be added to those in respect of the other".

Gov.uk circles the same ground from a different angle. Its retention page calls a 4-year endorsement "valid" for its first 3 years. A court can take an endorsement into account, it says, if you commit another offence while it's valid. For which points get added to which, though, the operative rule is the statute's.

Here's why the two clocks matter in practice. Say you picked up 3 points for speeding three and a half years ago. That SP endorsement is still on your record, because retention is 4 years.

But its points can't be added to a new offence's points for totting up. The offence dates are more than 3 years apart, so the old points are out of the window.

Can you avoid a totting-up ban?

Reaching 12 points doesn't always end in the standard ban. A court can decline to impose the normal minimum disqualification. It can only do that where it finds grounds under section 35 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988.

The bar is high. Section 35(4) requires the court to disregard "hardship, other than exceptional hardship". Ordinary hardship doesn't qualify, however real it feels.

There's a second restriction in the same subsection. Circumstances already taken into account for such a decision within the preceding 3 years must be disregarded too. You can't rely on the same hardship ground twice in 3 years.

Be clear about what this argument does. It's aimed at the disqualification, not at the points. Section 35 gives a court grounds not to ban you. It doesn't touch how long the endorsement stays on your record.

Offences with no points at all

Not every offence puts points on your record. Some carry disqualification with no penalty points. Gov.uk lists these as offences without penalty points, and they sit outside the 4- and 11-year regime entirely.

They come with their own rule. If you're disqualified for 56 days or more with no points, you must pay to renew your licence. And you can only renew it after the disqualification ends.

At the other end of the scale, a private parking charge never carries points. It's a contractual demand, not a motoring conviction. If one arrives, start with our guide to disputing a UK parking fine.

New drivers: a stricter rule, covered elsewhere

Points work differently in your first 2 years after passing your test, and the threshold for losing your licence is much lower. The full rules are in our guide to the graduated driving licence in the UK. That guide has the detail.

How to check your own points

No need to guess any of this. Gov.uk's View or share your driving licence information service shows the points on your record. If you're not sure where you stand, I'd check the record rather than count from memory. Gov.uk's advice is to view your driving licence record to see what penalty points you have and when they'll be removed.

The same service is what a viewer sees if you share a licence check code. Gov.uk's line on who else can find out about an endorsement is narrower than the retention period, though.

Other people, such as insurers and employers, may be able to find out about a 4-year endorsement at any time during those 4 years. For an 11-year endorsement, they can only find out during its first 5 years. That drops to the first 30 months if you're under 18. All worth knowing before a hire desk or an employer asks for a code.

For the rest of the rules around offences, fines and bans, our laws and fines hub collects the lot.

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