New Driver Provisions

The Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995 established a two-year Probationary Period for newly qualified drivers, that applies to all drivers who sat their driving test after 1 June 1997. 

The accumulation of 6 or more penalty points by such a driver before the end of a period of two years beginning on the date on which they first passed a driving test will result in the revocation of their licence and a requirement for them to pass another driving test in order to restore their previous entitlements.

Points carried over from a Provisional Driving Licence are still taken into account so any driver who transfers points from a provisional to a full licence would be revoked if any further offence were committed. However, if they have 6 points or more transferred, they will not be immediately banned, but any further offences will lead to a revocation of licence.

If you lose your licence as a new driver, you have to then re-apply for a provisional licence and re-take both parts of the driving test, theory and practical, until you have passed. Once this is done, you get a full licence again, with your previous penalty points endorsed on it; you will not be subject to the New Drivers Act again, as you can only be subject to them once. 

Penalty Points stay on your licence for 4 years from the date of the offence but remain ‘valid’ for 3 years from the date of the offence.

Under some circumstances, to avoid revocation of your licence, you may be able to persuade the Court to impose a punishment that avoids penalty points, such as receiving a short period of disqualification, but this will be very fact specific to each case. 

If the Court does decide to disqualify you from driving for a period of time, your licence is not revoked and when the disqualification period finishes, a new driving test is not necessary.

Whilst there is no right of appeal against the revocation of a licence, where a person has appealed against a conviction or endorsement which was the basis (or part of the basis) of

the revocation, their full entitlements must be restored to them pending the result of

that appeal.