Data study
Where drivers are caught without a valid licence
7,534 people were convicted in 2025 of driving otherwise than in accordance with their licence: learners driving unsupervised or without L plates, people who never passed a test, and drivers in a vehicle their licence does not cover. That is +11.1% on 2024 and +45.9% on the low of 2020. The map shows how every police force area compares and what the courts handed out.
- 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.
Licence offences before the courts: 2025 brought the first rise since 2022.
Courts in England and Wales convicted 18,626 people of this offence in 2010. The number fell for a decade, to 5,165 in 2020, and has been higher every year since, reaching 7,534 in 2025. 8,059 people were taken to court in 2025, of whom 93.5% were convicted.
Convictions where the licence offence was the principal offence. A learner stopped driving alone is almost always uninsured too, because learner policies require a supervisor, and in that case the Ministry of Justice usually counts the driver under the insurance offence instead. These figures are therefore the floor, not the full count of learners caught driving alone.
What the courts hand out
This is a fine-and-points offence: three to six penalty points, a fine of up to £1,000 and, for a provisional holder, points that follow them onto the full licence. 98.1% of those sentenced in 2025 were fined, an average of £174, and 7.0% were disqualified.
Custody is not available for this offence on its own; the handful of custodial sentences in the data are cases where it was the principal offence alongside something that carried prison. Average sentence length is not meaningful and is not shown.
Where the courts see most unlicensed drivers
Convictions per 10,000 licensed vehicles puts a big urban force and a rural one on the same footing. Metropolitan Police had 6.0 convictions for every 10,000 vehicles in 2025; Durham had 0.6. England as a whole was 2.0 and Wales 2.5.
Most convictions per 10,000 vehicles
Convictions in 2025 for every 10,000 vehicles licensed in the area. England and Wales: 2.0.
- Metropolitan Police 6.0
- Merseyside 5.0
- West Yorkshire 3.6
- South Wales 3.3
- Nottinghamshire 3.2
- Northumbria 3.1
- Lancashire 3.0
- South Yorkshire 3.0
- Northamptonshire 2.8
- Sussex 2.5
Fewest convictions per 10,000 vehicles
The same measure, from the bottom.
- Durham 0.6
- Staffordshire 0.6
- Suffolk 0.6
- Norfolk 0.7
- West Mercia 0.7
- Surrey 0.7
- Bedfordshire 0.7
- Warwickshire 0.8
- Cheshire 0.8
- Wiltshire 0.9
Biggest rise since 2019
Change in convictions between 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, and 2025.
- Sussex +203.3%
- Northumbria +189.0%
- Northamptonshire +180.0%
- South Yorkshire +156.0%
- North Yorkshire +136.2%
- Gloucestershire +129.6%
- Cumbria +126.7%
- West Yorkshire +109.2%
- Lancashire +109.0%
- Derbyshire +101.1%
Biggest fall since 2019
The forces where convictions have dropped furthest over the same period.
- Durham -56.4%
- Staffordshire -45.5%
- Norfolk -41.9%
- Surrey -39.4%
- Bedfordshire -38.5%
- Suffolk -26.5%
- Hertfordshire -25.5%
- Cambridgeshire -22.9%
- Cheshire -20.5%
- Humberside -16.8%
Highest average fine
Average fine for a person convicted in 2025, in forces with at least 50 fines. England and Wales: £174.
- Dorset £212
- Gloucestershire £203
- Cambridgeshire £199
- Northamptonshire £193
- Avon and Somerset £187
- Metropolitan Police £185
- Cumbria £184
- Lancashire £184
- Lincolnshire £183
- Hampshire £182
Lowest average fine
The same measure, from the bottom, in forces with at least 50 fines.
- South Wales £128
- Wiltshire £152
- South Yorkshire £156
- Nottinghamshire £158
- North Wales £158
- Dyfed-Powys £159
- North Yorkshire £160
- Essex £161
- Northumbria £162
- Surrey £163
Every police force area in England and Wales
Select a heading to sort. Select a force to open its card above.
| Avon and Somerset | 126 | 1.0 | +26.0% | +44.8% | 0.0% | £187 | 9.5% |
| Bedfordshire | 32 | 0.7 | 0.0% | -38.5% | 0.0% | £132 | 9.4% |
| Cambridgeshire | 84 | 1.2 | +55.6% | -22.9% | 0.0% | £199 | 2.4% |
| Cheshire | 66 | 0.8 | -7.0% | -20.5% | 0.0% | £163 | 7.6% |
| Cleveland | 52 | 1.6 | +8.3% | +67.7% | 0.0% | £156 | 3.8% |
| Cumbria | 68 | 1.9 | +44.7% | +126.7% | 0.0% | £184 | 1.5% |
| Derbyshire | 187 | 2.4 | +40.6% | +101.1% | 0.0% | £163 | 4.8% |
| Devon and Cornwall | 129 | 1.0 | -28.7% | +11.2% | 0.8% | £175 | 6.2% |
| Dorset | 56 | 1.0 | -22.2% | -16.4% | 0.0% | £212 | 14.5% |
| Durham | 24 | 0.6 | -40.0% | -56.4% | 0.0% | £171 | 0.0% |
| Dyfed-Powys | 53 | 1.3 | -14.5% | +8.2% | 0.0% | £159 | 3.8% |
| Essex | 297 | 2.4 | +8.0% | +80.0% | 0.0% | £161 | 7.1% |
| Gloucestershire | 62 | 1.3 | +226.3% | +129.6% | 0.0% | £203 | 4.8% |
| Greater Manchester | 151 | 0.9 | -27.4% | +52.5% | 0.0% | £174 | 9.9% |
| Gwent | 94 | 2.5 | +80.8% | +36.2% | 0.0% | £163 | 6.4% |
| Hampshire | 203 | 1.3 | +75.0% | +93.3% | 0.0% | £182 | 5.9% |
| Hertfordshire | 73 | 1.0 | +9.0% | -25.5% | 0.0% | £182 | 15.1% |
| Humberside | 84 | 1.4 | +15.1% | -16.8% | 0.0% | £167 | 3.6% |
| Kent | 232 | 1.9 | +1.3% | +82.7% | 0.0% | £169 | 5.6% |
| Lancashire | 278 | 3.0 | +31.1% | +109.0% | 0.0% | £184 | 9.7% |
| Leicestershire | 95 | 1.4 | -15.2% | +37.7% | 0.0% | £170 | 10.5% |
| Lincolnshire | 89 | 1.6 | +12.7% | -10.1% | 0.0% | £183 | 4.5% |
| Merseyside | 360 | 5.0 | +86.5% | +88.5% | 0.0% | £170 | 7.2% |
| Metropolitan Police | 1,812 | 6.0 | +3.6% | +23.3% | 0.0% | £185 | 6.6% |
| Norfolk | 43 | 0.7 | -29.5% | -41.9% | 0.0% | £147 | 2.3% |
| North Wales | 104 | 2.1 | +40.5% | +73.3% | 0.0% | £158 | 6.7% |
| North Yorkshire | 111 | 1.9 | -12.6% | +136.2% | 0.0% | £160 | 10.8% |
| Northamptonshire | 154 | 2.8 | -2.5% | +180.0% | 0.0% | £193 | 8.4% |
| Northumbria | 237 | 3.1 | +42.8% | +189.0% | 0.0% | £162 | 4.6% |
| Nottinghamshire | 212 | 3.2 | -24.6% | +58.2% | 0.0% | £158 | 9.4% |
| South Wales | 269 | 3.3 | +6.7% | +74.7% | 0.0% | £128 | 4.5% |
| South Yorkshire | 233 | 3.0 | +42.1% | +156.0% | 0.0% | £156 | 5.2% |
| Staffordshire | 48 | 0.6 | -38.5% | -45.5% | 0.0% | £204 | 2.1% |
| Suffolk | 36 | 0.6 | +20.0% | -26.5% | 0.0% | £213 | 10.8% |
| Surrey | 57 | 0.7 | -27.8% | -39.4% | 0.0% | £163 | 10.5% |
| Sussex | 273 | 2.5 | +3.4% | +203.3% | 0.0% | £178 | 9.9% |
| Thames Valley | 228 | 1.0 | +27.4% | +83.9% | 0.0% | £181 | 6.6% |
| Warwickshire | 35 | 0.8 | +9.4% | -10.3% | 0.0% | £190 | 17.1% |
| West Mercia | 66 | 0.7 | -1.5% | -7.0% | 0.0% | £170 | 4.5% |
| West Midlands | 159 | 1.1 | -24.3% | +27.2% | 0.0% | £182 | 7.5% |
| West Yorkshire | 502 | 3.6 | +68.5% | +109.2% | 0.0% | £180 | 8.8% |
| Wiltshire | 60 | 0.9 | +57.9% | 0.0% | 0.0% | £152 | 0.0% |
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 80702, "Driving, causing or permitting a person to drive other than in accordance with a licence (full or provisional)", 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 (0 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 offence code covers both full and provisional licence holders and cannot be split, so "learners driving alone" is part of these figures, not all of them. Driving after a licence has been refused or revoked on medical grounds (code 80704) is a separate offence and is not included.
- The split between outright bans and bans for reaching 12 points moves sharply in 2024 and 2025 while the total stays steady, which looks like a recording change in the courts’ new case system. This page uses the total only.
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.
Learning to drive in someone else’s car?
Learner cover from one day. Enter the reg.
Short-term learner insurance for a parent’s or friend’s car, with the supervisor the law requires, certificate as soon as you pay, and reported to the database the police check four times a day.
In partnership with GoShorty
What being in partnership with GoShorty means GoShorty is a trading style of Complex to Clear Group Limited (company 05044963), a UK insurance broker authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under reference 751221.We may be paid a fee if you take out a policy after being introduced by this website. We do not provide advice or make recommendations, and we are not an insurer or a broker.