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The majority of drivers regularly break the law according to the DfT
12 June 2023
Recent data from the Department for Transport (DfT) shows that almost 2.7 million motorists in Great Britain currently have penalty points on their driving licence – equivalent to 5.3 per cent of all legal drivers.
According to the DfT, the majority of drivers ‘regularly’ break the law and in 2021, 51 per cent of cars exceeded the speed limit on 30 MPH roads.
Other analysis included:
- The number of speeding offences has risen by around 60 per cent over the past decade.
- Prosecutions increased by 18 per cent in 2021 alone (245,000).
- There were more than 1,760 fatalities on roads in Britain in the year ending June 2022.
- 76 per cent of these fatalities were men.
The figures also reveal an order of ‘hotspots’ for motoring offenders in different locations throughout the UK, according to the number of penalty points on residents’ licences.
Four postcode areas in Bradford, Telford and Liverpool are home to the greatest number of drivers with any number of penalty points on their driving licence.
The worst offending locations, based on the number of people who have six or more penalty points on their driving licence are:
- Croydon (CR0 postcode) - 1,870
- Wembley area of London (NW10 postcode) - 1,498
- Leicester (LE03 and LE02 postcodes) - 1,488 and 1,309 respectively.
- Slough (SL01 postcode) 1,288
- One in every twenty-five drivers have at least six points on their licence in the Bradford (BD9), Liverpool (L24) and Wakefield (WF13) postcode areas.
Penalty points on your driving licence can dramatically increase your car insurance premiums and, in the UK, you can be disqualified from driving if you accrue twelve or more points within three years. (This is slightly different for new drivers who have held their licence for less than two years, who can be disqualified after accumulating six penalty points).
To put this into context, here is a list of driving offences compared with the number of penalty points they carry:
- Running a red light – 3 points
- Using a mobile phone behind the wheel – 6 points
- Driving without due care and attention (which covers a broad scope of dangerous driving behaviour, ranging from carrying out other tasks whilst driving, to wearing inappropriate footwear) – between 3 and 9 points
- Driving under the influence of alcohol – 10 points (on average).
Contract hire and fleet management specialists
We at Marshall Leasing are interested in the latest news relating to road safety, and we trust you find this information interesting.
If you would like to find out more about how you could benefit from our all-inclusive fleet management offering, please get in touch with our friendly team of experts by emailing info@marshall-leasing.co.uk or calling 01480 414541. We will be delighted to assist.
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