If the police think that you have committed a driving offence, you will probably receive a Notice of Intended Prosecution, NIP for short.

It can either be given verbally by the police officer (if they stop you while you’re driving) or by post. You should receive the letter within two weeks of the alleged offence – otherwise, it may be invalid. NIP should contain information such as the details of the alleged offence, including the date, time, location and a short description of the offence.

Keep in mind that receiving NIP does not mean you’ll get prosecuted – it is more of a legal warning.

According to law, you have 28 days to complete NIP and return it, along with the Section 172 notice it came with, which requires you to identify who was driving the car when the offence was committed.

It’s crucial that you do it honestly, as trying to frame someone into committing a driving offence just to avoid getting points on your licence is a serious offence, which can even lead to you being sent to jail.

Once NIP has been returned, the police have six months to initiate a prosecution – if they fail to do so, they won’t be able to bring any charges against you. Sometimes, they’ll decide against taking any further action. However, in most cases, you’ll either receive an FPN (Fixed Penalty Notice) or a Court Summons.

The Fixed Penalty Notice consists of a £100 fine and a driving endorsement of three penalty points on your licence. You can either accept it or refuse and defend yourself in court.

Getting a driving endorsement is nothing more than a legal term for receiving penalty points on your driving license for different offences. Depending on the offence you commit, a different number of points will be given. For instance, failing to comply with traffic light signals will give you a maximum of three penalty points, while driving an uninsured vehicle can cost you 6 points on licence.

Common driving endorsement offences and the points they incur, include:

The DVLA keeps a record of for 4 years from the date of conviction, but generally, most endorsements remain active for three years. If you are found guilty of a more serious offence, an endorsement is likely to stay on your licence for 10 years, but a record will be kept on your licence for 11 years from the date of conviction.

As a result of a driving endorsement, if you accumulate 12 or more penalty points within a three-year period, the Court will automatically disqualify you from driving for a minimum of six months (up to two years). You can avoid a disqualification if you can prove ‘exceptional hardship’ or some other special mitigating circumstance.

This disqualification, known as “totting up“, will show as TT99 endorsement on your licence.

The answer is yes, you can easily check how many points you have on your licence. In fact, checking it has never been easier. As with most things these days, you can do it online. Just click here – not only can you see your penalty points, but you can also check your driving record (e.g. how many vehicles you can drive), as well as create a licence’ check code’ valid for 21 days that you can use when you need to share your driving record with someone else, for instance, with the car hire company.

To remove expired endorsements, you will need to apply for a replacement driving licence. Expired endorsements will be automatically removed when you apply to renew or update your driving licence for other reasons.

For two years after passing your driving test, you are considered a new driver. During this period, special rules apply. If, within this period, you’ll acquire more than 6 points on your

licence (this is also including points you received prior to passing the test), then your licence will be revoked automatically.

Once that happens, and you want to regain your licence, you’ll need to reapply for a provisional licence, and you will be allowed to drive as a learner until you pass a further driving test.

Whenever you are issued with a penalty or a driving conviction, you need to notify your insurance company about it. It is important so that they can take it into account when deciding on your insurance quote. If you don’t do it, an insurance company can refuse to deal with a claim. Also, don’t wait until you have to renew your insurance to inform them – do it right after the conviction. If you fail to do so, you risk invalidating the policy.

A person with points on their licence can be seen as a bigger risk, meaning that their insurance quote will be higher than usual. There’s no such a thing as ‘one rule fits all’ – every client is analysed individually and is given a quoted price adequate to what the insurer finds.

In most cases, the insurance company will ask about driving convictions you have received in the past five years. Be honest about it because not sharing this kind of information is considered illegal.