A Freedom of Information request to the DVLA has revealed that nearly 54,000 learner drivers currently have penalty points on their provisional licence.
However, as there are more than seven million provisional licence holders the figure represents less than 1% of total provisional licence holders.
The FOI request by the price comparison website Confused.com also revealed that the majority were caught speeding (60%), followed by jumping a red light (43%). Nearly a third of learner drivers who have received penalty points (33%) were caught driving without insurance, while 15% were charged with driving carelessly.
In a separate online poll of 2,000 motorists, 29% of respondents said they were unaware that they could get penalty points before officially passing their test. The poll also revealed that 36% of respondents had received penalty points at some point for a motoring offence. Of these, 22% accumulated points before they had officially passed their driving test.
33% of respondents said they believe that the co-driver or driving instructor should be held responsible for any motoring offences committed by a learner driver, with 12% believing that they should also take the points for the learner.
Gemma Stanbury, head of car insurance at Confused.com, said: “We’re aware that people might make mistakes along the way as they learn to drive.
“However practising road safety is an important part of the process, and picking up bad habits such as speeding or jumping lights before officially passing your driving test is never a good way to start.”
My daughter aged 20, holds a provisional licence purely as a means of ID for pubs and clubs as a preference to a passport. She has not indicated until very recently a desire to learn to drive. I would be interested to know how many of the 7 million provisional licence holders like her purely use it as ID.
Peter Wilson London
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