Most people will be aware that when a driver accumulates 12 or more active penalty points on their licence the court must order their disqualification from driving unless there are very good reasons not to.
This procedure, which is carried out in accordance with section 35 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, is known as the totting up rule.
Penalty points normally remain on a driver's record for a period of five years, but only count for the purposes of totting up for a period of three years.
More often than not a driver caught by the totting up rule is disqualified for a period 6 months. This is the minimum period of disqualification that must be imposed on a driver who has been disqualified for less than 56 days in the preceding three years. This will clearly be the case for a driver who has never been disqualified.
Under the totting up rule, a driver who has been disqualified for 56 days or more in the preceding three years must be disqualified for a minimum of 12 months. A driver who has been disqualified for two periods of 56 days or more in the preceding three years must be disqualified for a minimum of 24 months.
These are the minimum disqualification periods. The court could impose a longer period of disqualification if so minded. For example, it might be appropriate to disqualify a driver who accumulates 20 penalty points for 9 months instead of 6 months.
A consequence of a totting disqualification - and only a totting disqualification - is that the driver's penalty point total is reduced to zero. The points are effectively "cashed in" when a totting disqualification is imposed.
If the court imposes a discretionary disqualification - e.g. it chooses to ban outright instead of impose points for speeding or careless driving - then no additional points are added or removed from the driver's record.
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