KNOW YOUR RIGHTS


As always at Patterson Law we keep you updated with any changes to the law, and this month there has been one substantial change regarding driving without due care and attention that could have significant impacts for taxi and private hire drivers.


The offence


Driving without due care and attention is where the standard of somebody’s driving has fallen below that of a careful and competent driver and can range from something minor such as overtaking a cyclist too closely to driving bordering on the dangerous, such as overtaking on a blind bend and causing a collision.


Many cases of driving without due care attention are dealt with out of court by way of a driver improvement course or a fixed penalty of 3 points and a £100 fine. But here, we are looking at cases that have proceeded to court. There are two reasons a case will proceed to court; if the matter is too serious for a course or fixed penalty, or if the driver has rejected that offer and chooses to have a court hearing.


When the case gets to court, the driver will be at risk of 3-9 penalty points or a disqualification (plus a fine). However, exactly what they receive depends on the Sentence Guidelines. Every UK Magistrates’ Court will have a set of guidelines which they must apply.


These guidelines changed on the 1st July and take effect for any case sentenced on or after the 1st of July, regardless of when the offence was committed. And it’s this change that could impact professional drivers.


The change


Under the old guidelines, there were 3 categories of offence:


Level of


seriousness Category 1


Category 2 Category 3


64 Starting point Range


Disqualification / points


Band C fine Band C fine Consider disqual- ification or 7-9 points


Band B fine Band B fine Band A fine Band A fine


5-6 points 3-4 points


Which category you are in depended on two factors: harm and culpability.


Culpability l


Excessive speed or aggressive driving


l


Carrying out other tasks while driving


l


Vehicle used for carriage of heavy goods or for carriage of passengers for reward


l


Tiredness or driving whilst unwell


l


Driving contrary to medical advice


If there was both harm and culpability it would be category 1 which is 7-9 points or a disqualification. If there was either harm or culpability but not both, it would category 2 which is 5 or 6 points, and if there was neither harm nor culpability, it would be category 3 which is 3 or 4 points.


As you can see from the factors in the table above, simply driving for hire or reward was automatically a factor for higher culpability.


So any private hire or taxi driver who had even the most minor collision would automatically have both harm and culpability, would be placed in category 3 and would be at risk of a minimum 7 points. Even without a co llision, even the most minor of offences would see a professional driver placed in the second category and at risk of a minimum 5 points.


The new guidelines


The new guidelines came into force on the 1st July 2025, and have completely removed all factors of harm and, significantly for professional drivers, removed culpability factors of being a professional driver.


The new guidelines, take into account only culpability when it comes to penalty points. There are still 3 factors, but it’s now solely dependent on the standard of driving, rather than levels of damage or injury and rather than being a professional driver:


JULY 2025 PHTM Harm


l Injury to others l


l


Damage to other vehicles or property


High level of traffic or pedestrians in vicinity


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