Penalty points
Great Britain runs a THRESHOLD, not an accrual ladder and not a debit account. Points are taken into account together and, at the threshold, the court must disqualify unless it is satisfied there are grounds for mitigating the normal consequences. New drivers are governed by a second, parallel mechanism entirely.
Attribution
Two clocks, and the market knows it
How long an endorsement stays on the record and how long points keep counting are different questions with different answers. Almost every confusion about penalty points starts by merging them.
Points are attached to an offence, not to a driver. Each offence that carries obligatory or conditional endorsement has its own entry in the schedule, and that entry states either a fixed number of points or a range the court works within. When a fixed penalty is issued out of court the points are the fixed-penalty figure for that offence; when a court deals with it, the court picks from the range. The catalogue below sets both out for every offence in the schedule.
There is one place the Act states a points figure itself rather than deferring to the offence: aiding or abetting an offence that carries obligatory disqualification attracts 10 points, flat. And where several offences are committed on one occasion and arise from the same conduct, only the highest single offence’s points are counted — the court can disapply that, but if it does it must say so in open court and give its reasons.
Then the two clocks. An endorsement stays on the driving record for a period set by the class of case, running in some classes from the conviction and in others from the offence itself. Separately, points from one offence stop being added to points from another once the offences are far enough apart in time. A driver can therefore be in the position of still having an endorsement showing while the points on it no longer count towards the threshold — which is exactly the situation people are describing when they say points “stay for four years but count for three”. Both periods are set out below, each with the clock it runs on.
Totting up
The threshold, and what happens at it
Points taken into account together. At the threshold the court must disqualify for not less than the statutory minimum, unless it is satisfied there are grounds for mitigating the normal consequences.
Great Britain runs a threshold, not an accrual ladder and not a debit account. Nothing is deducted as you go and there is no balance to watch: points sit on the record, and at the point where 12 or more of them are taken into account on one occasion, a different rule switches on. The court must then disqualify for at least the statutory minimum period, unless it is satisfied that there are grounds for mitigating the normal consequences of the conviction.
The word “must” is the Act’s. That is what makes the threshold different in kind from everything below it: up to that point disqualification is a discretion a court may or may not exercise, and at it the default flips. The escape route the Act provides is the mitigating-grounds provision — the thing usually called exceptional hardship — and the Act is much more specific about what a court may not take into account than about what it may.
Your points
Only a previous disqualification that was for a fixed period of at least the statutory length AND was imposed within the statutory window before the latest offence counts here. This site states the test rather than applying it for you — answering it wrongly puts you on the wrong rung.
The answer
Points taken into account
3
The threshold
12
Below the totting-up threshold
Two different three-year clocks
- 3 years — points from one offence are not added to another’s if the offences are more than this far apart (RTOA 1988 s.29(2))
- 3 years — a previous disqualification only counts if it was imposed within this window before the latest offence (RTOA 1988 s.35(2))
Sourced — legislationRTOA 1988 ss.28, 29, 35legislation.gov.ukSLD current text, fetched 2026-08-02
Minimum periods
How long a totting-up disqualification lasts, at minimum
Three rows, decided by how many qualifying previous disqualifications there are — a question about their length and their date, which this site states rather than answers for you.
| Qualifying previous disqualifications | Minimum period |
|---|---|
| No qualifying previous disqualification | 6 months |
| One qualifying previous disqualification | 12 months |
| More than one qualifying previous disqualification | 24 months |
Sourced — legislationRTOA 1988 s.35(2)legislation.gov.ukSLD current text, fetched 2026-08-02
- Aggregation window · 3 years
- Points from one offence are not added to another’s if the offences are more than this far apart. This is RTOA 1988 s.29(2), and it is about OFFENCES.
- Prior-disqualification window · 3 years
- A previous disqualification only counts if it was for a fixed period of at least 56 days AND was imposed within this window before the latest offence. This is RTOA 1988 s.35(2), and it is about DISQUALIFICATIONS. It is a different clock from the one above.
- Same occasion, same conduct
- Where several offences are committed on one occasion and arise from the same conduct, only the highest single offence’s points are counted. A court may disapply that, but if it does it must say so in open court and state its reasons (RTOA 1988 s.28(4)–(6)).
Mitigation
Exceptional hardship, and what a court may not take into account
The Act codifies the exclusions, not a positive list. What follows is the statutory list of things that may NOT be considered — everything else falls under “all the circumstances”.
The provision people mean when they say “exceptional hardship” is the mitigating-grounds part of the totting-up section. At the threshold the court must disqualify unless it is satisfied, having regard to all the circumstances, that there are grounds for mitigating the normal consequences of the conviction. That is the whole of the positive test: the Act does not itemise what qualifies, and neither does this site.
What the Act does itemise is the exclusions, and they are the useful part — because they rule out the three arguments people most often arrive with. The circumstances of the offence itself cannot be used to say it was not serious. Ordinary hardship is not enough; the statutory word is “exceptional”, and its presence is precisely what tells you that hardship on its own does not do the work. And circumstances already relied on in the recent past cannot be relied on again.
- any circumstances that are alleged to make the offence or any of the offences not a serious one
- hardship, other than exceptional hardship
- any circumstances which, within the three years immediately preceding the conviction, have been taken into account under that subsection in ordering the offender to be disqualified for a shorter period or not ordering him to be disqualified
Sourced — legislationRTOA 1988 s.35(4)legislation.gov.ukSLD current text, fetched 2026-08-02
Exceptional hardship
The exclusion above is of hardship “other than exceptional hardship”, which is why the phrase exists at all. The Act does not define it and this site does not invent a definition — what counts is a question for the court on the day.
That is an argument made at the hearing, before an order exists. If the order has already been made, appealing a driving ban is a different question with different courts and different clocks.
The catalogue
How many points for what
Straight from the schedule’s own points column. Where it states a range, the range is the court’s; where it states a single figure, that is the figure.
A range in this column is not a scale of severity you can place yourself on. It is the span the court chooses within, on facts this site knows nothing about. Where an offence also has a fixed-penalty route, the out-of-court figure is a single number rather than a range — which is why the same offence can appear to carry two different points figures depending on which route it took.
No offence in this column states different points for England and Wales than for Scotland — the points figures are unified across both. Three offences do state a different maximum punishment in the two jurisdictions (drug driving, twice, and driving while disqualified), but that is a sentencing difference, not a points one, and it is shown in the punishment column on the offences page — along with the disqualification and endorsement columns and the blanks the schedule itself carries.
← swipe to see the whole table →
| Offence | Provision | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Exceeding speed limit | RTRA 1984 s.89(1) | 3-6 or 3 (fixed penalty) |
| Careless, and inconsiderate, driving | RTA 1988 s.3 | 3-9 |
| Dangerous driving | RTA 1988 s.2 | 3-11 |
| Driving/attempting to drive unfit through drink or drugs | RTA 1988 s.4(1) | 3-11 |
| In charge, unfit through drink or drugs | RTA 1988 s.4(2) | 10 |
| Driving/attempting to drive, excess alcohol | RTA 1988 s.5(1)(a) | 3-11 |
| In charge, excess alcohol | RTA 1988 s.5(1)(b) | 10 |
| Driving/attempting to drive over specified drug limit | RTA 1988 s.5A(1)(a)+(2) | 3-11 |
| In charge, over specified drug limit | RTA 1988 s.5A(1)(b)+(2) | 10 |
| Failing to co-operate with a preliminary test | RTA 1988 s.6 | 4 |
| Failing to provide specimen | RTA 1988 s.7 | (a) 3-11 (b) 10 |
| Failing to comply with traffic signs | RTA 1988 s.36 | 3 |
| Brakes/steering/tyres | RTA 1988 s.41A | 3 |
| Control of vehicle / mobile phones | RTA 1988 s.41D | (a) 3 [s.41D(a)] (b) 6 [s.41D(b)] |
| Driving without a licence | RTA 1988 s.87(1) | 3-6 |
| Driving while disqualified | RTA 1988 s.103(1)(b) | 6 |
| Using motor vehicle while uninsured | RTA 1988 s.143 | 6-8 |
| Failing to give driver-identity info | RTA 1988 s.172 | 6 |
Offences whose points column the schedule leaves blank are omitted from this table and shown, blank, on the offences page — a blank there is the source’s own and is not the same statement as “no points”.
Sourced — legislationRTOA 1988 Sch.2 Pt.Ilegislation.gov.ukSLD current text, fetched 2026-08-02
New drivers
A separate mechanism, not a lower rung
The Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995 runs alongside the totting-up regime. Its threshold is different, its consequence is different, and the body that acts is different.
This is the part of the system most often described wrongly, and the error is always the same: presenting the new-driver rule as the bottom rung of the totting-up ladder. It is not. It is a separate Act with its own threshold, and what happens at that threshold is not a court disqualifying you — it is the Secretary of State revoking your licence, and the Act’s word for it is “must”.
The consequence is different too, and worse in a specific way. A disqualification ends and the licence is returned; a revocation sends you back to a provisional licence and a fresh test, both parts of it, before you can drive unaccompanied again. The points that triggered it do not disappear either — they remain on the record on their own clock. And the probationary period runs from becoming a qualified driver, not from passing any particular test later on.
Your details
The answer
Licence revokedThis is a SEPARATE mechanism, not the bottom of the totting-up ladder. Under the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995 the Secretary of State REVOKES the licence — which is a different thing from a court disqualification, with a different threshold and a different consequence.
This is the NEW DRIVER regime — a separate, parallel mechanism under the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995, not the bottom rung of the totting-up ladder. Reaching its threshold inside the probationary period means the licence is revoked, and the Act says the Secretary of State MUST revoke it.
The licence is revoked. This is a revocation by the Secretary of State, not a court disqualification, and the two are different things.
- Probationary period
- 2 years from becoming a qualified driver.
- Threshold
- 6 or more points taken into account during that period — whether through one occasion or the fixed-penalty route.
- Consequence
- The licence is REVOKED, and the Act’s word is “must”. That is a revocation by the Secretary of State, not a court disqualification.
- Surrendering the licence
- Failing to surrender a revoked licence within 28 days without reasonable excuse is itself an offence, carrying a fine not exceeding level 3.
- Getting it back
- A new provisional licence and a fresh test. The Act caps the test window at 2 years before the application.
Sourced — legislationRoad Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995 ss.1–4legislation.gov.ukSLD current text, fetched 2026-08-02
What the law does not say
The New Drivers Act does not extend to Northern Ireland
Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995 s.10(5)
Endorsements
How long an endorsement stays on a licence
And note which clock each row runs on — some start at conviction, some at the offence.
This is the second of the two clocks, and the column on the right is the part people miss. Two rows of the same length can expire months apart, because one is measured from the date of the conviction and the other from the date of the offence — and there can be a long gap between those two dates. The drink and drug class is the outlier: it runs far longer than everything else, and it runs from conviction.
An endorsement expiring is not the same event as points ceasing to count for totting up, and neither is the same as an endorsement being removed from the record — the record is the DVLA’s, and the service linked at the foot of this page is where its current state is shown.
← swipe to see the whole table →
| Class of case | Duration | Counted from |
|---|---|---|
| A disqualification was ordered | 4 years | the conviction |
| No disqualification — the ordinary caseor until a later s.35 disqualification is ordered | 4 years | the offence |
| The serious driving offencess.1, s.1A, s.2, s.3ZC, s.3ZD | 4 years | the conviction |
| The drink and drug offencess.3A, s.4(1), s.5(1)(a), s.5A(1)(a)+(2), s.7(6) obligatory-disqualification, s.7A(6) | 11 years | the conviction |
Sourced — legislationRTOA 1988 s.45Alegislation.gov.ukSLD current text, fetched 2026-08-02
Insurance
What points do to a premium
A question this market asks constantly and one that no statute answers. What follows is the boundary of what can honestly be said.
Nothing in the road traffic legislation this site is built on says anything about insurance premiums. Pricing is a commercial matter for insurers, endorsements are one of many things they may take into account, and how much difference a particular endorsement makes to a particular quote depends on the insurer, the driver and the cover. Any site telling you what points “will” cost you is estimating, whether or not it says so.
Two things are worth separating, because they are often run together. The first is disclosure: what you have to tell an insurer, and when, is governed by your policy and by consumer insurance law, not by the Road Traffic Acts, and it is not something this site advises on. The second is pricing: what the insurer then does with the information. This site can tell you how long an endorsement stays on the record and how long its points keep counting, both of which are on this page and both of which are sourced. It cannot tell you the money, and it will not guess at it.
If the answer matters to a decision you are about to take, ask the insurer directly before you take it, and keep the answer in writing.
Not a statutory matter
Why there is no figure here
Checking your own points
This is the DVLA’s job, and we send you there
A fake lookup would be a data-collection defect and a correctness defect at once. There is an official service, it is free, and it is the only one that knows.
The driving record is held by the DVLA, and the DVLA is the only body that can show it to you. Its own service displays the endorsements and points currently recorded against your licence and lets you share them with someone who needs to see them — an employer, a hire company, an insurer. It is free, it takes a few details you already have, and there is no better answer we could give you.
What this site will never do is imitate it. There is no lookup form on any page here, and there never will be: a page that asks for a licence number, a National Insurance number, a notice reference or a date of birth in order to “check your points” is either collecting data it has no business holding or showing you a guess. Both are serious defects on a page someone has arrived at while worried, and the fact that such a form would convert well is not an argument for building one.
The official service
View your driving licence information
DVLA
Shows the penalty points and endorsements currently recorded against your licence, and lets you share them with someone who needs to see them.
This site never asks for a driving licence number, a National Insurance number, a notice reference or a date of birth, and it renders no lookup form. Use the service above.
View your driving licence informationWhat this site does not hold
Where this applies. This site answers for England and Wales and for Scotland. It does not answer for Northern Ireland: the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 does not extend there (s.99(7)), and Northern Ireland runs a separate Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order regime that is not among this site’s sources. Figures here are Great Britain figures, not UK-wide ones.