Changes to penalties for using hand-held mobile phones whilst driving
17 November 2016
The government are raising the fixed penalty points for this offence from 3 to 6 for all drivers and the fine from £100 to £200 for all motor vehicles.
It is important that all drivers, including those of company vehicles, be aware of that the Department for Transport intends to lay legislation before Parliament to change the ‘penalties for using hand-held mobile phones whilst driving’ as soon as possible to:
- raise the fixed penalty points issued under a fixed penalty notice for this offence from 3 to 6 for all drivers
- raise the fixed penalty notice fine from £100 to £200 for all motor vehicles.
Geographical extent – when these regulation changes come into force they will apply to England, Scotland and Wales (GB only).
Background
A consultation ran at the beginning of 2016 to seek views on proposals to increase penalty points and fixed penalty notice (FPN) levels for using a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving.
This consultation originally proposed increasing the penalty points from 3 to 4 points for non-HGV drivers, 3 to 6 points for those that hold a large goods vehicle (HGV) licence and commit the offence whilst driving an HGV, and increasing the fine level from £100 to £150 for all drivers.
However following analysis of the consultation responses, the department decided to proceed with higher increases as outlined in the bullet points above.