New drivers

Your licence will be cancelled (revoked) if you get 6 or more points within 2 years of passing your test.

Points on your provisional licence

Any penalty points on your provisional licence that haven’t expired will be carried over to your full licence when you pass your test. However, your licence will be cancelled if you get any further penalty points that take you up to a total of 6 or more within 2 years of passing your driving test.

If your licence is cancelled within 2 years

You’ll have to apply and pay for a new provisional licence and pass both theory and practical parts of the driving or riding test again to get a full licence.

If you haven’t sent off for your full licence

You must retake both parts of your driving test if your licence has been cancelled after you’ve passed your test, but you haven’t sent off for your full licence yet. You can use your current provisional licence to take the tests.

Who’s covered by the rules

These rules apply to all new drivers who passed their first driving test in:

  • Great Britain
  • Northern Ireland
  • Isle of Man
  • Channel Islands
  • Gibraltar
  • the European Community (EC) and European Economic Area (EEA)

The EC/EEA countries are:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden.

There isn’t another 2 year period if you pass a test for another category of vehicle, for example, to drive a heavy goods vehicle.

Foreign licences

The rules also apply if you exchange a foreign driving licence for a British licence and then pass a further driving test in Great Britain.