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Loopholes around driving bans are set to be closed for good

21 November 2022

According to the government's website, you can be disqualified from driving if you build up 12 or more penalty points on your driving licence within a period of 3 years.

Furthermore, after a second disqualification, the ban can rise to one year. Then to two years for a third ban. 

Despite these rules, it has been discovered by the Ministry of Justice’s Sentencing Council that some courts have been failing to consider the driving history of offenders and instead have been overly lenient in only considering the driver’s most recent offence. 

This means that, in some cases, motoring offenders are receiving a shorter driving ban than legally required. 

The Sentencing Council offered the following statement, “It has been suggested by some magistrates and legal advisers that courts are too often imposing short discretionary disqualifications (of less than 56 days) where 12 or more points have been imposed. This avoids a longer period of disqualification that would result from totting-up (at least 6 months).” 

The ‘confusion’ over which points should count towards an increased disqualification is set to be cleared up in April 2023 under new amendments which are currently in consultation. 

The move comes just two years after the Sentencing Council closed a loophole which allowed motorists to avoid a driving ban by pleading that losing their licence would cause them “exceptional hardship”.

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