How are your motoring offences recorded?

Been convicted of a driving conviction? Want to check your penalty points or share your driving record with someone else, such as an convicted driver insurance provider? You might be wondering – how do I check my motoring offences?

Here’s the lowdown of where to find all the information you need.

Since 8 June 2015, when paper driving licences were scrapped, the DVLA began recording driving records online only on the DVLA Shared Driving Licence Service. This allows you to:

• View your driving record, for example what vehicles you can drive
• Check your penalty points or disqualifications
• Create a licence ‘check code’ to share your driving record with a third party, for example an insurance provider or car hire company.

How can insurance companies check my record?

Many insurance providers have access to a driver database called MyLicence. This provides details of what type of licence you hold, how long you have had it, what you are permitted to drive, any penalty points or convictions you have, as well as any disqualifications.

Those that use it will ask for your driving licence number. The database will not share details of any spent convictions.

Why should I disclose my conviction?

With information so readily available, it would be stupid to lie about your driving conviction. For a start, it is easy for employers and insurers to check this out. And when they do, your car insurance could easily be declared void.

Secondly, if you were to make a claim and your insurer later discovered you had an unspent conviction, they could ask for their money back.

However, if your conviction is spent, there is no need to declare this. You can check if your conviction is spent or not using the disclosure calculator

Car insurance if you have a driving conviction

Worried about getting car insurance? Conviction insurance providers specialise in finding a tailored policy to suit your needs, based on your individual circumstances. For multiple quotes from a panel of specialist providers, click below.
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