Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of reports that 10,000 drivers hold a valid licence despite accruing 12 penalty points; and what assessment he has made of trends in the level of penalty points accrued by drivers in each of the last five years.

Only a court can disqualify an individual from driving under the “totting up” provisions where a driver has accrued 12 or more penalty points. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency’s role is to maintain a record of the endorsement information received from the courts on the individual’s driver record.

If the DVLA receives a notification from a court for a driver with 12 or more penalty points who has not been disqualified, the DVLA will alert the court to this. This enables the court to consider whether to re-open the case and disqualify the driver where appropriate. The DVLA cannot overturn a court’s decision not to disqualify a driver where more than 12 penalty points have been accrued.