SP30: Exceeding statutory speed limit on a public road

SP30 is exceeding the statutory speed limit on a public road. DVLA publishes 3 to 6 points and a stay of 4 years from the date of the offence. The current points still count towards totting for 3 years from the offence date. A typical fixed penalty uses 3 points. A court can use up to 6, and can disqualify on the higher speeding bands. Motorway speeding is SP50, not SP30. A 30 mph street and a 60 mph A-road both produce SP30 if the limit you broke was not a motorway limit.

A new driver who already holds 3 points and then takes a 3 point SP30 is at 6 and is revoked. A driver who already holds 9 live points and then takes 3 is at 12 and facing a totting ban of at least 6 months. The code is ordinary and common. The clocks are what people miss.

A speed awareness course, where one is offered and completed, avoids the points and never creates the SP30. Fail it, skip it, or fall outside the offer, and the points are back in play. This page is the code, not the course.

This is the example people search. The first 3 points might already be an SP30, a CD10 or a TS10. The second 3 point SP30 does not care. 3 plus 3 is 6. Inside 2 years of the first pass, DVLA cancels the licence. The route back is a fresh provisional and a retake of both tests.

A court speeding band that uses 6 points revokes a clean new driver on its own. That is why a 50 in a 30, which sits in a higher band on the speeding pages, is a licence-ending event for a new driver even with no previous points.

Exceptional hardship is a totting argument at 12 points. It is not a new driver argument. Revocation is a DVLA cancellation under the New Drivers Act, not a court ban you can plead off as hardship.

Answer the insurer's questions about unspent convictions. No official SP30 premium percentage is published. Many underwriters still load for points. A hire job, a delivery job and a care job that needs a clean licence can end at 6 or at 9, not only at 12. Tell the employer the number on the record, not a rounded story.

Scotland uses the same DVLA code on a GB licence. The speeding sentence itself is a Scottish court matter if the road was in Scotland. Northern Ireland uses DVA. A GB SP30 still counts towards 12 and still revokes a new driver.

A company car does not absorb the points. The driver is endorsed. A van on a 30 mph street is still SP30, not a goods-vehicle discount. Foreign drivers on UK roads can still collect the code through the UK process.

That it drops off at 3 years for insurance. It stops counting for totting after the third anniversary and can still print for a fourth year. That motorway cameras produce SP30. Motorway limits are SP50. That 3 points is the most a court can impose. DVLA's range goes to 6. That a new driver has 12 points of room. They have 6.

People also mix a PCN from a 20 mph council camera with this criminal endorsement. Some 20 mph schemes use penalty charge notices, which are not SP30. Some use criminal process, which can be. Read the notice. The letters at the top tell you which system you are in.

A Notice of Intended Prosecution and a section 172 request to name the driver both have deadlines on the paper. Ignoring them does not cancel the speeding. It can add MS90, which is 6 points for failing to identify the driver, on top of the original SP30. That is how a 3 point camera case becomes a 9 point disaster.

If you accept a fixed penalty, pay it and give your name, date of birth and licence number. You do not post the photocard in for an ordinary fixed penalty. If you want a hearing, request it before the date on the notice. Silence can register the amount as a fine and still put the points on the record.

A speed awareness course has its own booking window. Miss it and the 3 points proceed. Do not assume a late call to the course provider is a published extension. Read the letter. If you have already taken a course in the period that provider uses, you may not be offered another. That is an operational rule on the notice, not a DVLA code rule. A new driver already on 3 points who then takes this 3 reaches 6 inside 2 years of the first pass and is revoked. A full-licence driver already on 9 who takes this 3 reaches 12 and faces a totting ban of at least 6 months.

A delivery, care or sales job that needs a clean licence can have a 6 point cap in the contract even though the law's totting line is 12. Three points may be a warning. Six may be a dismissal. Read the contract, not the pub rule that 'everyone has 3'. A hire company can refuse a driver with live points. That is their underwriting, not a DVLA threshold.

A foreign licence used in Great Britain can still pick up SP30 through the UK process for an offence committed here. The new driver rules also apply if you exchange a foreign licence and then pass a further test in Great Britain. Do not assume a European card is outside DVLA's table.

Company cars do not absorb SP30. The driver is endorsed. A van on a 30 mph street is still SP30. A 20 mph zone can be criminal SP30 or a council PCN depending on the scheme. The heading of the notice is the tell. A PCN does not put SP30 on a licence. An SP30 fixed penalty does.

A licence check shows the letters, the offence date and the points. Give all three. 'Three points for speeding' hides whether it is SP30 or SP50 and whether it was 3 or 6. An employer who allows 6 points needs the number. An insurer who asks for codes needs the letters.

The offence date is the totting date. The print date runs 4 years from that offence. If the check still shows SP30 in year 4, it may no longer count towards 12. It can still be visible. Do not tell an insurer it has 'gone' because the calculator's current total is 0. Answer the question they asked.

A course that avoided points means there is no SP30 to read. Do not invent one on a form. Do not hide one that is there. A spent conviction question is the Rehabilitation of Offenders guidance, not the DVLA 4 year box. They can disagree. Answer both honestly if both are asked.

The notice names the police force or the fixed penalty office and the date. That date is the one that matters. A section 172 request to name the driver is a short window. Miss it and MS90 at 6 points can replace a 3 point SP30. A course offer has a booking window. Miss it and the 3 points proceed. A new driver already on 3 points who is about to accept another 3 should get advice before that date, because 6 points inside 2 years revokes the licence.

DVLA does not take a call to 'remove' an SP30 you have accepted. The fixed penalty office and the court are the places that impose it. After it is on the record, a licence check is how you see it. GOV.UK's view-your-licence service is the free look. An employer who needs a check will use their own view.

If you are heading for 12 current points, the court that would tot you up is the magistrates' court in England and Wales, or the local court in Scotland or Northern Ireland. Exceptional hardship is argued there, under section 35, not in a letter to DVLA. A driving job that will end at 12 points is a reason to take advice before you accept the third 3 point ticket, not after.