How 4,000 Drivers Keep Their Licence Despite Having 12 or More Points

Rack up 12 penalty points in three years and you expect to lose your licence. Yet more than 4,000 drivers in Britain are still legally on the road despite reaching or passing that threshold, according to figures obtained from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. Among them, 117 licence holders have amassed more than 20 points for speeding alone, and one driver is still permitted to drive while carrying a remarkable 45 points. For the ordinary motorist who loses their licence after a single careless month, it raises an obvious question: how is this allowed to happen?

The answer lies in a legal mechanism called exceptional hardship, and understanding it explains both how repeat offenders stay mobile and what the points on your own licence really mean. Here is how the system works, why thousands avoid a ban, and how to make sure you never have to test the rules yourself.

How the Totting Up System Works

Penalty points are added to your licence when you are convicted of a motoring offence, from speeding and using a phone at the wheel to more serious matters. Each offence carries a set number of points, and they stay relevant for totting up for three years from the date of the offence. The rule that catches most drivers is simple: reach 12 or more points within that three year window and you face a totting up disqualification, normally a ban of at least six months.

New drivers face an even tighter limit. Anyone who collects six or more points within two years of passing their test has their licence revoked automatically and must reapply and pass the test again. For everyone else, the 12 point threshold is the line that triggers an appearance before magistrates, who decide whether the ban applies. That court hearing is where the exceptional hardship argument comes in.

What Exceptional Hardship Means

A driver facing a totting up ban can ask the court not to impose it by arguing that disqualification would cause exceptional hardship, either to themselves or to other people who depend on them. If the argument succeeds, the driver keeps their licence despite having enough points for a ban. This is the route by which thousands of motorists with 12 or more points remain on the road.

The bar is meant to be high. Sentencing guidance makes clear that almost every disqualification causes hardship of some kind, because losing a licence is inconvenient and often costly. That ordinary inconvenience is part of the deterrent and is not enough on its own. To count as exceptional, the hardship has to go beyond what any banned driver would normally suffer. Losing a job is not automatically exceptional, but the knock on effect, such as employees who would be laid off, a family that would lose its home, or vulnerable relatives who would be left without care, can tip a case over the line.

The same hardship argument cannot usually be reused within three years, so a driver who succeeds once cannot simply rely on it again. Even so, critics argue the threshold is being applied inconsistently, and the data showing individuals driving with 20, 30 or even 45 points has fuelled concern that the safety valve has become a loophole. The RAC, which obtained the figures, has expressed deep concern that the arrangement lets repeat offenders stay behind the wheel.

Why It Causes Concern on the Roads

The worry is straightforward. Penalty points exist to identify and remove the riskiest drivers, and a motorist who has been caught speeding often enough to collect 20 or more points has demonstrated a sustained pattern of breaking the limit. Allowing such drivers to continue, the argument goes, undermines the deterrent for everyone and leaves potentially dangerous motorists on the same roads as the rest of us.

Enforcement of speeding itself is becoming tougher and harder to dodge, which makes the totting up debate more pointed. New camera technology is catching more offences than ever, including systems that detect phone use and seat belts as well as speed, as we reported in our piece on why AI speed cameras are catching thousands of drivers for phones and seatbelts. As detection rises, more drivers will approach the 12 point threshold, and the exceptional hardship question will only grow louder.

What This Means for You

For the vast majority of drivers, the lesson is not how to exploit the loophole but how to stay far away from it. Points carry consequences long before a ban. Insurers ask about them, and even a handful can push a premium up sharply, with the cost lasting for years. Six points can be enough to make some insurers refuse cover altogether, and the financial penalty of points often outlasts the points themselves.

Start by knowing where you stand. You can view your own driving licence record free of charge on the gov.uk website, which shows your current points and when each set will no longer count for totting up. It is worth checking before you renew insurance or change job, so there are no surprises. If you are offered a speed awareness course instead of points for a minor first offence, taking it keeps your licence clean, although you can usually only do one within a three year period.

If you ever do face a totting up hearing, this is one area where professional legal advice is worth the cost, because exceptional hardship arguments are technical, must be supported by evidence, and are decided case by case. This article is general information rather than legal advice, and a specialist motoring solicitor can assess your specific circumstances. The far better position, though, is never to need that conversation. Keeping to the limits, putting the phone away and treating every point as a warning rather than a tally to be managed is what keeps you off the list of drivers gambling on a court’s sympathy.

The existence of 4,000 drivers clinging to their licences with full sets of points is a reminder that the system has discretion built into it. For a small number with genuinely exceptional circumstances, that discretion is the difference between hardship and catastrophe. For everyone else, the smarter move is to make sure the question never arises, because the surest way to keep your licence is to give the courts no reason to take it away. Staying vigilant about how you drive protects more than your licence, as our coverage of Britain’s most stolen cars and keyless theft shows that owning and running a car safely takes attention on every front.

Sources:

• https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/more-than-4000-drivers-with-12-or-more-speeding-points-still-allowed-on-the-road/
• https://www.gov.uk/penalty-points-endorsements/penalty-points-and-the-totting-up-system
• https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence