Penalty points may be issued against a licence when a driver is convicted of a motoring offence. They stay on the driving licence for four or eleven years depending on the offence.
A driver who accumulates six or more penalty points within two years of passing their first driving test will have their licence revoked, meaning they will have to retake their test. They may be disqualified from driving if they build up 12 or more penalty points within a period of three years, known as the ‘totting-up’ process, for a period usually ranging from six months to two years.
Across Bristol, 89 licence holders had at least 12 points on their licence as of February this year, according to the figures published by the DVLA. The licence holder in the area with the highest total of points was someone with 24 in BS13, which covers Bedminster Down, Bishopsworth, Hartcliffe, and Withywood.
Read: The offenders jailed in March at Bristol Crown Court
After their period of disqualification has been served, drivers can re-apply for their licence. As penalty points stay on the licence for four or 11 years, they may still be there after a period of disqualification when drivers are entitled to drive again.
Drivers can also accumulate more points for driving while disqualified. Both of these things could contribute to drivers having higher numbers of points.
Britain’s worst driver has 68 points on their licence - they live in the BN2 postcode in Sussex. There are another six drivers across the country who have more than 50 points.
Across Britain, 2.7 million registered drivers have points on their licences out of 41.1 million full licences and 9.2 million provisional licences. Drivers in the L24 postcode, which includes Speke in Liverpool and Hale in Halton, are the most likely in Britain to have points on their licence, among postcodes with at least 200 licence holders. One in seven drivers in the area (15.2 per cent) has at least one point.
In comparison, just 0.5% of drivers in N9 in Newport, Wales, have points - or one driver out of 205 locally. Nationally, 6.5% of registered licence holders have incurred points.
The oldest registered licence holder is 108 years old - though the DVLA says having a valid licence doesn’t mean someone is actively driving, a resident in the UK or still alive. There is also a provisional licence registered for a 107-year-old.
Two 102-year-olds have points on their licence - one with three and the other with four points. At the other end of the age range, two 16-year-olds have points, one with four and one with seven (16-year-olds can hold a licence to drive a moped).
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What area of Bristol has the most points on their licence?
As many as one in nine drivers have penalty points on their licence in parts of Bristol, with one motorist in the area racking up a total of 24. How do the drivers where you live compare?
In BS11, which covers Avonmouth and Shirehampton, there are 1,187 drivers with at least one penalty point on their licence. That’s 11.1 per cent of the 10,739 registered licence holders in the area, the highest proportion in Bristol.
By comparison, 5.5 per cent of drivers in BS1, which covers Bristol city centre, have points on their licence, the lowest proportion in the city. Across the whole of Bristol, 26,291 licence holders have points. Type in your postcode below to see how your area compares.
