Data study
Where banned drivers are caught driving
9,303 people were convicted of driving while disqualified in England and Wales in 2025, +9.5% on 2024. Fewer than one in five went to prison. The map shows how every police force area compares, what the courts handed out, and how the punishment has softened since 2010.
- Covers
- 42 force areas, 2010 to 2025
- Written by
- TIUK Editorial Team
- Updated
- 22 October 2026
Find a police force area
Select a force on the map, or search for it by name. The figures are for the courts in that area.
Each shade is a fifth of the 42 force areas. The City of London is counted with the Metropolitan Police.
England and Wales
Select a force area
Choose a force on the map, search above or pick one from the tables below to see its convictions and sentences, and how it compares with the rest of England and Wales.
Banned drivers before the courts: 2025 brought the first rise since 2021.
Courts in England and Wales convicted 10,446 people of driving while disqualified in 2010. The number fell to a low of 6,542 in 2014 and has been higher since, reaching 9,303 in 2025. 9,725 people were taken to court in 2025, of whom 95.7% were convicted.
Convictions where driving while disqualified was the principal offence. A banned driver who was also uninsured, as most are, is counted once, here, because this is the more serious charge. Causing death or serious injury by driving while disqualified are separate offences and are not included.
What the courts hand out
Driving while disqualified carries up to six months in prison, an unlimited fine and a further ban. In practice the courts have moved away from custody: in the years to 2017 about 26% of those sentenced went to prison; in 2025 it was 17.9%.
Share sent to prison, by year
Average custodial sentence length is shown only where a force had at least five custodial sentences, following the Ministry of Justice's own rule. The six-month maximum means the handful of longer sentences in the data are recording artefacts. Suspended sentences and community orders have taken the place of custody since the mid-2010s.
Where the courts see most banned drivers
Convictions per 10,000 licensed vehicles puts a big urban force and a rural one on the same footing. West Yorkshire had 6.0 convictions for every 10,000 vehicles in 2025; Dyfed-Powys had 0.9. England as a whole was 2.5 and Wales 2.3.
Most convictions per 10,000 vehicles
Convictions in 2025 for every 10,000 vehicles licensed in the area. England and Wales: 2.5.
- West Yorkshire 6.0
- Nottinghamshire 4.6
- South Yorkshire 3.9
- Merseyside 3.8
- Northamptonshire 3.8
- Durham 3.7
- Lancashire 3.7
- Greater Manchester 3.6
- Metropolitan Police 3.5
- Northumbria 3.4
Fewest convictions per 10,000 vehicles
The same measure, from the bottom.
- Dyfed-Powys 0.9
- Wiltshire 1.0
- Thames Valley 1.1
- Dorset 1.2
- Suffolk 1.3
- Hampshire 1.3
- Hertfordshire 1.3
- Devon and Cornwall 1.3
- Warwickshire 1.4
- Gloucestershire 1.4
Biggest rise since 2019
Change in convictions between 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, and 2025.
- Greater Manchester +85.4%
- Kent +65.5%
- Lancashire +61.8%
- South Yorkshire +61.3%
- Cumbria +57.4%
- Cambridgeshire +48.4%
- Leicestershire +47.0%
- Sussex +46.6%
- Thames Valley +35.6%
- Northamptonshire +34.2%
Biggest fall since 2019
The forces where convictions have dropped furthest over the same period.
- Norfolk -40.1%
- Warwickshire -40.0%
- Dyfed-Powys -37.1%
- Gwent -27.6%
- Suffolk -20.2%
- Hertfordshire -20.0%
- Dorset -15.2%
- Metropolitan Police -9.6%
- South Wales -9.3%
- West Mercia -2.6%
Most likely to be jailed
Share of those sentenced in 2025 who got immediate custody, in forces with at least 50 sentences. England and Wales: 17.9%.
- South Wales 28.9%
- Hampshire 23.6%
- Cheshire 23.4%
- Nottinghamshire 22.9%
- Gloucestershire 22.1%
- Durham 22.0%
- Derbyshire 21.2%
- Northamptonshire 21.1%
- Northumbria 20.9%
- Cleveland 20.6%
Least likely to be jailed
The same measure, from the bottom, in forces with at least 50 sentences.
- Lincolnshire 7.5%
- Leicestershire 9.6%
- Norfolk 11.0%
- Surrey 11.3%
- Kent 11.8%
- Hertfordshire 12.6%
- Humberside 13.5%
- North Yorkshire 13.6%
- North Wales 14.7%
- Merseyside 15.5%
Every police force area in England and Wales
Select a heading to sort. Select a force to open its card above.
| Avon and Somerset | 280 | 2.2 | +13.4% | +30.8% | 18.9% | £391 | 80.4% |
| Bedfordshire | 85 | 1.9 | +25.0% | +1.2% | 19.5% | £415 | 82.8% |
| Cambridgeshire | 138 | 1.9 | +42.3% | +48.4% | 19.1% | £304 | 71.3% |
| Cheshire | 189 | 2.4 | +28.6% | +11.8% | 23.4% | £407 | 86.7% |
| Cleveland | 104 | 3.3 | +13.0% | 0.0% | 20.6% | £388 | 75.7% |
| Cumbria | 85 | 2.3 | +57.4% | +57.4% | 17.9% | £381 | 76.2% |
| Derbyshire | 187 | 2.4 | +26.4% | +16.9% | 21.2% | £817 | 75.1% |
| Devon and Cornwall | 173 | 1.3 | -8.0% | -2.3% | 20.3% | £380 | 70.9% |
| Dorset | 67 | 1.2 | -8.2% | -15.2% | 19.4% | £271 | 85.1% |
| Durham | 160 | 3.7 | +26.0% | -1.2% | 22.0% | £273 | 78.7% |
| Dyfed-Powys | 39 | 0.9 | +18.2% | -37.1% | 8.6% | £375 | 80.0% |
| Essex | 243 | 2.0 | +38.1% | +16.3% | 16.0% | £425 | 76.8% |
| Gloucestershire | 67 | 1.4 | +13.6% | +8.1% | 22.1% | £403 | 67.6% |
| Greater Manchester | 599 | 3.6 | +14.3% | +85.4% | 18.8% | £247 | 73.6% |
| Gwent | 92 | 2.4 | -14.8% | -27.6% | 18.9% | £287 | 70.0% |
| Hampshire | 193 | 1.3 | -0.5% | +8.4% | 23.6% | £461 | 73.3% |
| Hertfordshire | 96 | 1.3 | +14.3% | -20.0% | 12.6% | £431 | 87.4% |
| Humberside | 186 | 3.1 | +0.5% | +15.5% | 13.5% | £299 | 74.6% |
| Kent | 273 | 2.3 | +2.6% | +65.5% | 11.8% | £305 | 75.3% |
| Lancashire | 343 | 3.7 | +51.8% | +61.8% | 17.1% | £320 | 73.1% |
| Leicestershire | 172 | 2.5 | +21.1% | +47.0% | 9.6% | £264 | 80.3% |
| Lincolnshire | 159 | 2.9 | -3.6% | +5.3% | 7.5% | £368 | 74.2% |
| Merseyside | 278 | 3.8 | -13.7% | +0.7% | 15.5% | £338 | 70.8% |
| Metropolitan Police | 1,056 | 3.5 | +15.7% | -9.6% | 16.6% | £331 | 81.7% |
| Norfolk | 109 | 1.7 | +3.8% | -40.1% | 11.0% | £305 | 65.1% |
| North Wales | 128 | 2.6 | -12.9% | +1.6% | 14.7% | £360 | 82.9% |
| North Yorkshire | 103 | 1.8 | +1.0% | +24.1% | 13.6% | £420 | 81.6% |
| Northamptonshire | 208 | 3.8 | -6.3% | +34.2% | 21.1% | £440 | 88.0% |
| Northumbria | 262 | 3.4 | +40.9% | +26.6% | 20.9% | £273 | 77.6% |
| Nottinghamshire | 301 | 4.6 | +8.3% | +32.6% | 22.9% | £310 | 79.4% |
| South Wales | 223 | 2.8 | +0.5% | -9.3% | 28.9% | £291 | 82.2% |
| South Yorkshire | 300 | 3.9 | +13.6% | +61.3% | 15.8% | £254 | 72.9% |
| Staffordshire | 172 | 2.3 | +12.4% | +13.2% | 19.5% | £333 | 74.1% |
| Suffolk | 71 | 1.3 | -11.2% | -20.2% | 16.4% | £447 | 67.1% |
| Surrey | 127 | 1.6 | +22.1% | +17.6% | 11.3% | £315 | 67.7% |
| Sussex | 195 | 1.8 | +5.4% | +46.6% | 17.1% | £342 | 70.9% |
| Thames Valley | 263 | 1.1 | -5.7% | +35.6% | 18.4% | £408 | 80.8% |
| Warwickshire | 60 | 1.4 | +71.4% | -40.0% | 16.7% | £499 | 72.7% |
| West Mercia | 150 | 1.6 | +20.0% | -2.6% | 17.2% | £296 | 82.1% |
| West Midlands | 462 | 3.1 | -3.5% | +4.8% | 20.3% | £285 | 81.8% |
| West Yorkshire | 832 | 6.0 | -0.4% | +23.1% | 17.7% | £266 | 77.2% |
| Wiltshire | 72 | 1.0 | +24.1% | +12.5% | 18.7% | £388 | 84.0% |
Download every column as a CSV, including prosecutions, every sentence outcome, vehicles, population and the full 2010 to 2025 series for each force.
The other studies in this series
About the data
Sources
- Court outcomes: Ministry of Justice, Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly: December 2025, Outcomes by Offence (published 30 April 2026). Offence 80701, "Driving whilst disqualified from holding or obtaining a licence", a summary offence, England and Wales, calendar years 2010 to 2025, counted on a principal-offence basis (each defendant once, under their most serious offence).
- Vehicles: Department for Transport, Vehicle licensing statistics table VEH0105, licensed vehicles at end of 2025, aggregated from local authority to police force area with the ONS lookup. Vehicles are counted at the registered keeper's address.
- Population: Office for National Statistics, mid-2025 population estimates for England and Wales, aggregated the same way.
- Boundaries: ONS Open Geography Portal, Police Force Areas (December 2024). Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2024.
What the force area means
The Ministry of Justice records the police force area of the court that dealt with the case, which is usually but not always the area where the driver was stopped. Some courts handle cases for a whole region, which can push a region's cases into one force area's figures. Treat large differences between neighbouring forces with that in mind, and read the map as where drivers are convicted rather than a precise count of where they were caught.
Other things to know
- The City of London Police area is reported inside the Metropolitan Police figures by the Ministry of Justice, so the two are combined here, with vehicles and population combined to match.
- Convictions per 10,000 vehicles uses all licensed vehicles, not only cars, because the offence covers any motor vehicle.
- A small number of cases each year have no force area recorded (1 in 2025). They are in the national totals and in no force.
- Figures from 2010 to 2016 come from the Ministry of Justice's older processing system and 2017 onwards from the current one; the ministry warns that detailed outcomes can step between those years.
- The death-by-driving and serious-injury variants of this offence (codes 00417 and 00418) are indictable offences counted separately by the Ministry of Justice and are not in these figures.
- Prison figures are immediate custody only. Suspended sentences are counted separately and are not custody.
Using this research
The analysis is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Quote it, chart it or republish the data with a credit to Temp Insurance UK and a link to this page. The CSV holds every figure on the page. Questions about the method go to the contact page.
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