UK speeding crisis: 3.6 million points issued as insurance costs soar
Tue, 17 Mar 2026
British drivers were hit with more than 4.8 million penalty points in 2025 — and over 3.6 million of them were for speeding offences.
Of the millions of penalty points issued for driving offences in 2025, a whopping 3.66 million were for speeding. In other words, nearly 4 in 5 driving licence endorsements last year were for driving too quickly.
The most common speeding offence was an SP30, for exceeding the statutory speed limit on a public road. These accounted for nearly three million penalty points.
A further 683,000 were an SP50, for exceeding the speed limit on a motorway.
Way back in third place were IN10 offences, for using a vehicle uninsured against third-party risks. 373,000 points were issued for these.
MS90 failure to give driver identity information and CU80 breach of vehicle control requirements (such as using a mobile phone) also featured in the top five.
Top five penalty point offences in 2025
- SP30 – 2,981,795 points
- SP50 – 683,881 points
- IN10 – 373,165 points
- MS90 – 235,135 points
- CU80 – 202,033 points
“Penalty points can remain on your driving record for either four or 11 years depending on the offence,” says Uswitch insurances expert Leoni Moniska.
There’s clear evidence they increase car insurance costs. “Between August 2025 and January 2026, drivers with one conviction were quoted, on average, 21% more than those with none.”
As Moniska points out, disclosing penalty points is a legal obligation and insurers have access to your DVLA records, so it’s important that you do.
The Uswitch analysis found more than half of drivers don’t know how to check how many penalty points are on their licence. Luckily, there is a penalty points checker on the government website.
Despite the frustrations of picking up penalty points, motorists are generally in favour of them. In fact 51% agree that points are effective at reducing dangerous driving.
They also deter repeat offences — of those surveyed that have one or more points on their record, 82% said they changed their driving behaviour to avoid racking up more.
