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Driving: Disqualification

Answer

I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

The Government takes driving offences extremely seriously and wants to ensure that we are doing everything we can to keep our roads safe. That is why we are legislating to increase the maximum penalty for causing death by driving whilst disqualified from two to 10 years, and create a new offence of causing serious injury by driving whilst disqualified. We are also changing the law to allow the commencement of provisions which will ensure that courts must take account of any time in prison in setting the length of a driving disqualification.

The number of people found guilty for driving while disqualified in England and Wales, from 2010 to 2013 (the latest data available) can be viewed in the table.

Defendants proceeded against at magistrates' court, found guilty and sentenced at all courts for offences relating to driving while disqualified(1), England & Wales, 2009-2013(2)(3)
Offence		Outcome	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Driving while disqualified		Proceeded against	13,924	11,122	9,379	8,191	7,619
		Found Guilty	13,217	10,465	8,869	7,676	7,083
		Conviction ratio(4)	94.9	94.1	94.6	93.7	93.0
		Sentenced	13,260	10,500	8,917	7,684	7,099
		Of which:
		Absolute discharge	47	43	45	67	60
		Conditional discharge	236	143	134	121	119
		Fine	963	895	820	755	795
		Community sentence	5,688	4,483	3,626	3,099	2,580
		Suspended sentences	2,558	2,111	1,924	1,639	1,704
		Otherwise dealt with	100	93	68	41	56
		Immediate custody	3,668	2,732	2,300	1,962	1,785
		Custody rate(5)	27.7	26.0	25.8	25.5	25.1
		Average fine (£)	267.65	246.26	278.35	283.06	284.67
		Average custodial sentence length (months)(6)	3.3	3.2	3.2	3.1	3.2
(1) An offence under S 103 (1) of the Road Trafic Act 1988
(1) The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.
(2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.
(3) The number of offenders sentenced can differ from those found guilty as it may be the case that a defendant found guilty in a particular year, and committed for sentence at the Crown Court, may be sentenced in the following year.
(4) Conviction ratio is calculated as the number of convictions as a proportion of the number of proceedings.
(5) The proportion of offenders sentenced who are sentenced to immediate custody.
(6) Excludes life and indeterminate sentences.
Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services - Ministry of Justice.
Ref: PQ 220161

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

220161

Session

2014-15

Transferred

Yes

Subjects

Convictions Driving Disqualification

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk