DVLA Section 99 Revocations

24.11.2010

Changes to DVLA procedures when dealing with drivers who have failed to surrender their licences to the court or DVLA to have penalty points endorsed on their licence.

Revocation of driving licences

Drivers who receive penalties from the courts or the fixed penalty offices for offences that do not result in disqualification, are required to surrender their current valid driving licence for the endorsement to be added.

Many drivers fail to surrender their driving licence to the courts or DVLA and in these circumstances the law provides that we can revoke the licence as a last resort.

Before revocation takes place the court will have made the driver aware, on at least one occasion, of the requirement to produce his/her licence for endorsement.

Failure to produce the licence will result in the driver receiving a letter from DVLA requesting its return.

Current procedure

At the point DVLA revokes a licence our current interpretation is that the law allows a "concessionary period’ of 12 months during which the driver may continue to drive. If, at the end of the concessionary period, the driver has failed to surrender their licence their entitlement is revoked.

New procedure

Along with the Home Office, we have reviewed road traffic legislation and will no longer advise drivers that they have a 12 month concessionary period.

This means from 7 November 2010, where a driver fails to surrender his/her driving licence for endorsement to the court, DVLA will write to the driver requesting the return of the licence to the Agency.

If the driver does not surrender his/her licence, then it will be revoked. DVLA will give drivers 28 days to comply before the revocation takes effect. This is indicated on the letter sent by DVLA to the drivers affected.

Revoked Drivers pre 7 November 2010

In the last year, a significant number of drivers have failed to return their licence and had their entitlement revoked. DVLA would have advised these drivers that despite the revocation, they would have retained entitlement to drive for 12 months as DVLA will have applied that concessionary period.

We expect that many of these drivers will have complied during this period and so we do not intend to contact these drivers and will allow the 12-month time period to expire.

This means that from 7 November, a 2-tier system will be in place for the following 12 months.