How Long Do Penalty Points Stay on Your Licence?

Last checked: 23 September 2026

Penalty points are easy to get and surprisingly confusing to get rid of. Ask around and you’ll hear 3 years, 4 years and 11 years. All three answers are partly right, because GOV.UK uses two separate time periods for every endorsement: how long it stays on your driving record, and how long it’s “valid”.

This guide explains both periods, shows which offences start the clock on the offence date and which on the conviction date, and works through real dates so you can check your own. It covers licences issued in England, Scotland and Wales. Endorsement codes and processes in Northern Ireland are different.

Penalty points and endorsements in plain English

If you’re convicted of a motoring offence, the court can fine you and “endorse” your driving record with penalty points. The endorsement is recorded with an offence code, such as SP30 for exceeding the speed limit on a public road, plus the number of points. Depending on the offence, you can get anywhere from 1 to 11 points.

Accepting a fixed penalty notice for speeding also puts points on your licence. GOV.UK says that if you plead guilty you’ll pay a £100 fine and have 3 points added, unless you’re offered a speed awareness course instead.

How long points stay on your licence, by offence

The offence code decides two things: how many years the endorsement stays on your record, and whether the clock starts on the day of the offence or the day you’re convicted.

Offence	Stays on your record	Clock starts	Valid for
Most offences, including speeding, careless driving (CD10 to CD33), using a phone (CU80) and no insurance (IN10)	4 years	Date of the offence	First 3 years
Reckless or dangerous driving (DD40, DD60, DD80)	4 years	Date of conviction	First 3 years
Any offence that results in a disqualification	4 years	Date of conviction	First 3 years
Drink or drug driving (DR10, DR20, DR30, DR31, DR61, DR80)	11 years	Date of conviction	First 10 years
Causing death by careless driving under the influence, or then failing to provide a specimen (CD40, CD50, CD60, CD70)	11 years	Date of conviction	First 10 years

“On your record” and “valid” are not the same thing

Every endorsement has two clocks. The first is how long it must stay on your driving record: 4 or 11 years. The second, shorter one is how long it stays valid: 3 years for a 4-year endorsement, or 10 years for an 11-year endorsement.

Validity matters if you get into trouble again. A court can take an endorsement into account when both of these are true:

• you commit another offence while the endorsement is valid
• the endorsement is still on your driving record when the court considers your case

That’s where the common “3 years” answer comes from. The ban threshold uses a 3-year window too: you can be disqualified if you build up 12 or more penalty points within a period of 3 years.

Who else can see your points

Other people, such as insurers and employers, may be able to find out about an endorsement:

• at any time during a 4-year endorsement
• during the first 5 years of an 11-year endorsement, or the first 30 months if you’re under 18

So even after a speeding endorsement stops being valid, it can still show up for the fourth year. If an employer or hire company asks to see your record, you can share it with a check code rather than handing over your licence details.

How long do speeding points stay on your licence?

Speeding endorsements (the SP codes) must stay on your driving record for 4 years from the date of the offence. They’re valid for the first 3 of those years. The same rule applies whether you were caught by a camera or stopped by the police.

Code	Offence	Points
SP10	Exceeding goods vehicle speed limits	3 to 6
SP20	Exceeding speed limit for type of vehicle (excluding goods or passenger vehicles)	3 to 6
SP30	Exceeding statutory speed limit on a public road	3 to 6
SP40	Exceeding passenger vehicle speed limit	3 to 6
SP50	Exceeding speed limit on a motorway	3 to 6

The minimum penalty is a £100 fine and 3 points. If you plead not guilty and the court finds you guilty, you can be fined more and get more points. The fine is usually a percentage of your weekly income, up to £1,000, or £2,500 if you were on a motorway. You could also be disqualified.

You may be offered a speed awareness course if the police decide it’s appropriate for your offence and you haven’t been on one in the past 3 years.

A worked example

Say you’re caught doing 36mph in a 30 zone on 14 March 2025, and you accept the fixed penalty the following month. The clock starts on the offence date, not the date you paid:

• the 3 points are valid until 14 March 2028
• the endorsement stays on your record until 14 March 2029

GOV.UK gives its own example: an offence on 10 June 2012 must stay on the driving record until 10 June 2016.

Offences where the clock starts at conviction

For some offences, the dates run from the day you’re convicted instead. The conviction date is when the court finds you guilty, which may be later than the date of the offence.

Dangerous driving and offences that lead to a ban

Reckless or dangerous driving (DD40, DD60 and DD80), and any offence that results in disqualification, stays on your record for 4 years from the date of conviction. GOV.UK’s example: a conviction on 28 May 2011 must stay on the record until 28 May 2015.

Drink and drug driving: 11 years

Drink driving and drug driving endorsements (DR10, DR20, DR30, DR31, DR61 and DR80) stay on your record for 11 years from the date of conviction. So do CD40, CD50 and CD60 (causing death by careless driving while under the influence of drink or drugs) and CD70 (causing death by careless driving, then failing to provide a specimen for analysis).

GOV.UK’s example: a conviction on 3 December 2009 must stay on the record until 3 December 2020. These endorsements are valid for the first 10 years, and insurers and employers may be able to find out about them during the first 5 years. Our drink drive calculator shows how many units are in common drinks and how long alcohol can take to leave your body.

The 12-point limit and how long a ban lasts

You can be banned from driving if you get 12 or more penalty points within 3 years. The court decides how long the ban lasts. Under the points rules, a ban can last:

• 6 months, if you get 12 or more penalty points within 3 years
• 12 months, if you get a second disqualification within 3 years
• 2 years, if you get a third disqualification within 3 years

If you’re disqualified for 56 days or more, you must apply for a new licence before you can drive again. Remember that a ban also changes the clock on that endorsement: offences that result in disqualification stay on your record for 4 years from the date of conviction. Our guide to what happens if you get 12 points covers the court process and exceptional hardship.

New drivers: the 6-point rule

If you get 6 or more points within 2 years of passing your test, your licence is cancelled (revoked). Any points on your provisional licence that haven’t expired carry over to your full licence, and they count towards the 6. Read more in our guide to the 6-point rule for new drivers.

If your licence is cancelled, you’ll have to apply and pay for a new provisional licence and pass both the theory and practical tests again. Passing a test for another category later, such as a lorry licence, doesn’t start a new 2-year period.

How to work out your own dates

1. Find the offence code for each endorsement on your driving record.
2. Check whether that code runs from the offence date or the conviction date, using the table above.
3. Add 3 years to find when it stops being valid, and 4 years to find when it should leave your record. For drink or drug driving, add 10 and 11 years instead.
4. Add up the points from offences within the last 3 years to see how close you are to 12, or to 6 if you passed within the last 2 years.

Our penalty points calculator does the last step for you. Enter the date and points for each offence and it shows your running total, and the date each set of points stops counting towards a ban.

How to check your points and when they’ll be removed

Use GOV.UK’s View or share your driving licence information service. It shows your penalty points and disqualifications, along with the vehicle categories you can drive. It works for licences issued in England, Wales and Scotland, and you’ll need:

• your driving licence number
• your National Insurance number
• the postcode on your driving licence

You can also contact DVLA. If an endorsement is shown incorrectly, contact the court that convicted you.

Do you need to do anything to remove old points?

Usually not. GOV.UK says most expired endorsements are removed from your driving record automatically once they’re no longer valid. How long that takes depends on how serious the offence was, as set out in the table above. If something looks wrong, check the dates against the offence code first. If the endorsement details themselves are wrong, contact the court that convicted you.

Sources: Penalty points (endorsements), Speeding penalties, Driving bans for drink driving, drug driving and other offences and View or share your driving licence information, all on GOV.UK.