Drug driving sentence calculator

There is no published fixed penalty for drug driving. The case goes to court. The Sentencing Council guideline for driving or attempting to drive with a specified drug above the specified limit has been in force since 1 July 2023. It does not ask for a drug level, because the guideline says the level cannot be directly connected to the harm caused. The calculator on this page therefore has no reading box. It asks for culpability, harm, and whether you have a relevant conviction in the last 10 years.

Police can use a roadside drug screening test for some specified drugs, then take an evidential blood specimen. Specified-limit drug driving is a different offence from driving while unfit through drugs. Unfit is about impairment. Specified-limit is about a blood concentration above the legal threshold for that drug. This page is the specified-limit guideline. Do not treat a cannabis limit case as if it were an unfit case, or the other way around.

The ordinary guideline requires disqualification for at least 12 months. A second relevant offence carries a minimum 3 year disqualification. That is the same shape as drink driving, without drink driving's reading table. Category 1, the most serious combination of culpability and harm, starts at 12 weeks' custody with a ban of 29 to 36 months. Category 3, the least serious, starts at a Band C fine with a ban of 12 to 16 months.

Higher culpability in this guideline includes a goods vehicle or passenger service vehicle, driving for a commercial purpose, or having another specified drug or alcohol in the body. Lesser culpability is the residual category. Greater harm includes obvious impairment or an unacceptable standard of driving. Lesser harm is the residual category. The four combinations collapse to three categories: higher plus greater is Category 1, lower plus lesser is Category 3, and the mixed pairs are Category 2.

Category 3 starts at a Band C fine. On £500 a week net that starting point is £750, with a published range from a Band B fine to a low level community order and a ban of 12 to 16 months. Category 2 starts at a medium level community order, with a ban of 17 to 28 months. Category 1 starts at 12 weeks' custody, with a range from a high level community order to 26 weeks' custody and a ban of 29 to 36 months.

A van, a taxi, a bus or a delivery round is how many people move from Category 3 to Category 2 or 1 without a collision. So is a second specified drug, or alcohol as well as the drug. The guideline lists those as culpability factors. They are not optional colour. If they are present, the higher row is the published starting point.

Specified-limit drug driving is about a concentration in blood, not about whether you 'felt fine'. Some specified drugs are also medicines. Whether a medical defence applies is a legal question on the facts of the prescription, the advice you were given, and the way you drove. This page does not invent a medical defence test, because the guideline behind the calculator does not publish one as an input. If you take a specified medicine, the honest step is to take advice from the prescriber about driving and to take legal advice if you are charged.

Unfit through drugs remains available as a separate charge where impairment is the point. A driver can face one or the other, and in some investigations both are considered. Do not assume that a prescription turns a specified-limit charge into a warning. Do not assume that a small reading is Category 3 either. Category is culpability and harm, not nanogrammes.

Foreign prescriptions, veterinary products, and cannabis products bought legally abroad are not given a published carve-out in this guideline. The specified limit is a UK criminal limit on a UK road. If the blood result is over the specified threshold, the charge is the charge.

DG10, driving or attempting to drive with a drug level above the specified limit, stays on the driving record for 11 years from conviction and is valid for the first 10. DR80, driving while unfit through drugs, sits on the same 11 year clock. That is the drink and drugs family, not the 4 year speeding family. Because the ordinary guideline requires a ban, points are not the ordinary disposal.

Insurance is likely to rise considerably after a serious driving conviction. That is the Highway Code's published wording. No official percentage exists by code. An employer who needs you to drive will see the ban immediately and the code for years after. A new driver who is banned still has to retake the test route back onto a full licence after the disqualification, and the new driver revocation rule is a separate trap on any endorsable points they already hold.

There is no drink-drive rehabilitation course published for specified-limit drug driving on the GOV.UK drink-drive course page, which is written for drink-drive offences. Do not expect a quarter off a drug driving ban by booking a drink-drive course. If a court has a different statutory power in a particular case, that will be on the order. This page only reports what the linked sources publish.

No. It is an England and Wales Sentencing Council guideline. Scottish courts and Northern Ireland courts sentence specified-limit drug driving under their own procedure. The offence of driving with a specified drug above a specified limit still exists as UK road traffic law, but the Category 1 to 3 starting points on this page are not a Scottish or Northern Ireland tariff.

DVLA endorsement codes remain the same on a Great Britain licence. A Scottish conviction can still put DG10 on a GB licence for 11 years from conviction. Northern Ireland licensing through DVA is a different office. A ban still stops you driving across the United Kingdom while it is in force.

This site does not publish specified blood limits for each drug on this page, because the calculator's own guideline says the level is not the harm input. The GOV.UK drug driving law page is the place that lists the specified drugs and limits. Use that list, not a remembered figure, if you need the threshold for a named drug.

A goods vehicle, a passenger service vehicle, or driving for a commercial purpose is higher culpability in this guideline. So is another specified drug or alcohol in the body. A dual-qualified case, drink and a specified drug, is how Category 3 disappears. The drink driving guideline may also be in play as a separate offence. The court can face two charges. This calculator only reports the drug driving guideline you selected.

Hire cars and company cars do not lower the category. The driver is still the driver. An employer who supplied the van can have their own problems if they allowed an impaired driver out, but that is not this guideline's owner-company table. This guideline is about the driver.

New drivers receive the same obligatory ban. There is no 3 point fixed penalty to 'take the hit'. After the ban, the licence position is the same as any other obligatory disqualification: apply again, and do not drive on the old photocard.

The leading myth is that a 'low' cannabis reading is like a Band A speeding fine. Specified-limit drug driving has no fixed penalty and an obligatory ban. The second myth is that the blood number picks the category. The guideline says it cannot be directly connected to harm. The third is that a prescription is an automatic defence. It can be relevant. It is not a published 'not guilty' button on this page.

People also mix specified-limit with unfit, mix this guideline with drink driving's reading table, and mix England and Wales starting points with Scottish courts. Another practical error is booking a drink-drive rehabilitation course for a drug driving ban because a friend did that after a drink case. The GOV.UK course page is written for drink-drive offences.

Ignoring the blood appointment or the summons makes the case worse, not better. Refusing a specimen is a separate offence with its own guideline. If you have a genuine medical reason you cannot provide a type of specimen, say so at the time and get it recorded. Silence is not a medical reason.