KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
Currently, where there are any prosecutions there is general- ly a stipulation that the defendant must surrender their licence.
At the fixed penalty stage (e.g. where someone is offered three points and a £100 fine for speeding), should a driver wish to accept, they must surrender their licence to the police. At court, should a defendant not attend, they must post their licence to the court. And if a defendant attends court, they must bring their licence with them.
This law has been outdated for years. It was written in the days of paper licences – as it was vital for the police/courts to not only see the physical licence to count the number of points on there, but also to write any new penalty points awarded on it.
It’s crazy. How can these mere accidents, simple misjudge- ments, potentially destroy professional drivers’ lives??
It is a very new offence and here at Patterson Law we haven’t seen anyone charged yet. But it will be interesting to see in what cases the police actually charge. Will they throw this around willy nilly? Or will they reserve it for only the most serious of cases? Time will tell.
COURSES OFFERED AS AN ALTERNATE TO PROSECUTION
Currently, where somebody is offered a course instead of prosecution, such as the Driver Improvement Course or a Speed Awareness Course, it is only police policy that dictates the amount it costs and specifies that only one course can be completed every three years.
However, a new law allows the Department of Justice to set standard fees for courses (so it won’t be up to the course provider/police anymore) and legislate that a driver cannot do a second course if a similar one has been completed within three years.
So for those drivers who have ‘got away’ with a speeding matter by doing a second course within three years, those days are over.
However, it does stipulate that you cannot complete a similar course within three years. Whilst the word ‘similar’ is not defined, one would imagine that if you have done a Driver Improvement Course previously there is nothing stopping you from doing a Speed Awareness Course within three years.
SURRENDER OF LICENCES
Finally there is a minor change to the surrender of licences. This one has been talked about for a while now, but only just introduced - and it’s about time.
AUGUST 2022
But since the DVLA is now online, this requirement is pretty redundant. Over the last few years, certainly at court, this law hasn’t been as strictly upheld as it used to be, and a change has been needed for a few years.
The new laws stipulate that at the fixed penalty stage you may not have to surrender your licence as long as you have fulfilled ‘identification requirements’. There is no indication yet as to exactly how this will work and what requirements will be needed, and since the legislation has been introduced we have not seen any of those here at Patterson Law. We anticipate this will be a gradual change, but it seems to make perfect sense.
Similarly, at the court stage, the new law states that the court ‘may’ require a defendant to surrender their licence – not ‘must’ – where a defendant is not in attendance.
But where there is a court hearing which the defendant is attending, the law has stayed the same – that a defendant MUST bring their licence with them.
However there is also a new offence of failing to surrender your licence to the DVLA without reasonable excuse. So if, for example, your licence has expired or you have been dis- qualified and the DVLA has requested the surrender of your licence, it is now law that you MUST surrender it. Failure to do so will see you charged with an offence and issued a fine.
Again – this seems perfectly sensible to prevent people from relying on and driving on disqualified or expired licences.
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