Points and Bans

Section 172: naming the driver, and what happens if you don’t

Written and reviewed by a practising criminal barrister · Law stated as at 27 August 2026

What the notice is

A camera records an offence. The vehicle can be identified but the driver cannot, so the police write to the registered keeper and ask. That request is the section 172 notice, and it usually arrives with, or shortly after, a notice of intended prosecution for the underlying offence.

The duty falls on the keeper first, but it does not stop there. The section also allows the police to require information from any other person who is in a position to give it. An employer, a hire company, a partner, a friend who borrowed the car: each can be asked, and each commits the offence by not answering.

The information required is whatever leads to identifying the driver. If you were driving, you say so. If you were not, you name the person who was.

The 28 days

Twenty-eight days beginning with the day the notice is served. Not 28 days from when you got round to opening it, and not 28 days from the offence.

Serving the notice on the address the DVLA holds is enough. If you have moved and not updated the registration, or the letter went to an old address, the notice is still served. The practical consequence is unglamorous but real: keep the V5C address current, and open post from a police force the day it arrives.

When you reply, keep proof. Service of the original notice is presumed unless you can show otherwise, and if the police say your answer never arrived, your recollection of posting it will not go far on its own. A free certificate of posting from the Post Office settles it.

Why ignoring it costs more than answering

This is the part that surprises people, and it is the reason the offence exists at all.

Three times the fine and twice the points, for the paperwork rather than the driving. And because six points is half of the twelve that triggers a totting-up ban, a single section 172 conviction can take someone who was two tickets away from trouble and put them within one.

Because the offence is not punishable with imprisonment, it is usually prosecuted under the Single Justice Procedure, decided on paper by one magistrate. So the second letter, the one that starts the prosecution for not answering the first, is easy to leave unopened too. That is how a camera ticket becomes six points and a ban.

“I genuinely don’t know who was driving”

There is a defence, and it is narrower than it sounds. A keeper is not guilty if they show that they did not know, and could not with reasonable diligence have found out, who was driving.

Two things follow. The first is that not knowing is not enough on its own; you have to have tried. The second is that the trying has to be capable of being described. What did you do, when, and what did it produce?

So a household with three insured drivers and a camera photograph that shows nothing useful is not a hopeless case, if the keeper asked each of them, checked what records existed, and can set that out. The same household where nobody was asked because it was easier not to is a very different case.

Answer the notice within the 28 days either way. Explaining what you did to find out is a reply. Silence is not, and silence forfeits the defence you might have had.

Companies, hire cars and pool vehicles

Where the keeper is a company, the position is stricter. A company must show not only that it could not identify the driver with reasonable diligence, but that no record of who had the vehicle was kept and that failing to keep one was reasonable. In an organisation that runs vehicles, that is a hard thing to establish, which is the point of the rule.

A company convicted of the offence is fined but cannot be given penalty points, because there is no licence to endorse. That is worth knowing if you are a director deciding whose name goes on a reply: the consequences do not disappear, they move.

The 14 days, and why it is a different thing

Something people meet at this point is the fourteen-day rule, and it is frequently misunderstood.

For certain offences, including speeding and careless driving, a notice of intended prosecution has to be served within fourteen days of the offence, or the driver was warned at the time. But the notice can be served on the registered keeper rather than the driver, and it counts as served when it is properly sent, whether or not it arrives. It also does not apply at all where an accident occurred.

Most importantly, that fourteen days belongs to the underlying offence. It is not a deadline for the section 172 duty, and a late notice of intended prosecution does not make the request for the driver’s identity go away. Answering the section 172 notice and disputing the fourteen days on the speeding matter are two separate things, and you can do both.

Common questions

Can I refuse to name my husband, wife or partner?

No. There is no family exception to the duty. Refusing is the offence, and it carries six points and a larger fine than the speeding matter would have.

What if I was driving but I want to challenge the speed?

Name yourself within the 28 days and dispute the speeding separately. The two are different proceedings, and complying with one does not concede the other.

I replied but they say they never received it. What now?

Say so, and produce what you have: a copy of the reply, the date, and proof of posting. Proof of posting is usually what decides this, which is why it is worth getting at the time.

Does the section 172 offence carry a ban?

Not automatically. The court can disqualify at its discretion, and the six points can also take you to twelve, at which point a totting-up ban arises separately.

Can a company be given penalty points?

No. A company has no licence to endorse, so it is fined instead. An individual named as the driver is dealt with in the ordinary way.

Is the 28 days ever extended?

The period is fixed by statute. If it has passed, reply immediately anyway and explain the delay, because what you did and when you did it is relevant both to the defence and to sentence.