Yahoo Sports The truth behind the driving licence penalty points epidemic
Motoring law in Britain is a mess. Points that expire, obscure police codes, and relics of 19th-century legislation are all components of the Highway Code and the regulatory framework that governs millions of journeys every day.
But many British motorists only learn how big the penalty is for speeding when the envelope lands on their doormat.
Penalty points are the most obvious form of justice available to traffic police and the courts. In principle, it’s simple – if you rack up 12 points, they take your licence away. But in practice, it’s more complicated.
First, points expire. The three points you get for offences such as speeding, for example, will lapse after three years. Some more serious offences have points that linger for a decade, such as causing death by dangerous driving.
And while, generally, people caught doing 69mph in a 60mph zone could expect three points and a fine, it’s not always as simple as that.
If you’re a first-time offender, you might be offered an alternative to points – the so-called speed-awareness course. These courses (in the news recently in association with the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman) are designed to show speeders the error of their ways, educating attendees on the potentially disastrous effects of going too fast. Expect a crash course in stopping distances and speed limits in exchange for the roughly £100 cost of the session.
Obviously, accruing points is a bad thing, usually accompanied by a fine. And your insurance company may well increase your premium to reflect your intemperate ways. Three points might add about 10 per cent, and six could add as much as a quarter to the cost. Any more might affect job applications, and nine will make car-hire companies very wary.
Once you’ve accrued 12 points, there’s very little you can do about your impending ban, apart from make a compelling case to the court that you – or someone close to you – would experience “exceptional hardship” if they took your licence away.
Speeding is on the rise – but what’s fuelling it?
Speeding convictions in court have soared by 16 per cent since 2021, and more than two million of the nearly 40 million motorists in Britain currently have points on their licence for speed offences. But is that because we’re all driving badly, or are there other factors?
There is some evidence to suggest that our behaviour on the road has deteriorated since the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020. Road deaths rose by 9 per cent in 2022, and 63 per cent of respondents to a survey by the road safety charity IAM RoadSmart felt that aggressive motorists were a bigger threat to their personal safety than three years ago.
But the apparent increase in speeding offences coincides with the widespread deployment of 20mph limits in places where 30mph had been deemed appropriate for decades.
Additionally, the Metropolitan Police quietly changed its enforcement threshold, effectively making speed cameras more sensitive; a leeway of 10+3 (10 per cent of the speed limit, plus three miles per hour) became 10+2, meaning that Londoners could no longer get away with 25mph in a 20mph zone or 36mph in a 30mph zone. This coincided with a 259 per cent increase in brown envelopes sent to drivers over six months – though the Met has denied a link.
New ways and reasons to penalise motorists seem to be dreamt up by the day. In the past five years, car owners have been forced to contend with new low-emission zones (£12.50 to drive into central London), low-traffic neighbourhoods (incursions into which could cost you £135) and an increasing number of labyrinthine one-way systems, parking schemes and traffic-control measures that all result in daily costs or huge fines.
Cities and counties around Britain are beginning to follow London’s lead and apply blanket 20mph limits on urban roads. Anyone behind the wheel of a car has a responsibility to drive properly, but fining people at such a rate feels suspiciously like a revenue stream. And motorists are beginning to feel that there’s a three-figure fine lurking around every street corner.
Points of shame
“When I read the letter telling me I had been disqualified from driving for six months, my cheeks burnt,” confesses Rebecca *. “How on earth would I get my three daughters to school?”
Rebecca is among the many motorists each year who find themselves at the sharp end of a driving ban through the humdrum rule-breaking that comes with everyday life.
“I’m just a bit careless,” she admits. “I’ll often do 60mph in a 50mph zone without realising it, and I’m always late and rushing around. I was first caught speeding in 2019, when a local camera caught me doing 35mph in a 30mph zone on my way to pick the kids up from school. I went on a speed-awareness course instead of getting points. But less than a year later, I got caught again at the same spot and got three points.
“I then did 68mph without realising I was in a 50mph zone, but in my defence, it was on a quiet stretch of motorway late at night, and the speed limit had changed without me noticing.
The points racked up, and before I knew it, I was banned.
“Driving bans conjure up images of drunk drivers and crazy recklessness. That’s not me. But I knew that if word got out to the other mothers at school that I had lost my licence, those associations would be made. So I kept quiet and made excuses.
“I had to enlist my in-laws to help with the school run. I told lies to quite a few people about broken-down cars and changed working hours. We didn’t even tell the children in case they told friends at school.
“After a six-month ban, I had to apply for a new driving licence, which came with a huge hike in insurance. But the greatest cost was shame and embarrassment.”
* The name has been changed
