FOI 384-2025 / Apr 2025 / Driving
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 384-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 1st April 2025 as follows:
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding offences related to driving without a valid licence within your jurisdiction. Specifically, I would like to request the following data for the period between 1st January 2020 and 31st December 2024:
- The total number of recorded offences where individuals were found to be driving without a valid licence.
- The number of arrests made for driving without a valid licence.
- The number of individuals who were caught driving with an expired licence.
- The number of fines issued for driving without a licence, an expired licence or a valid licence, along with the total value of fines imposed.
- The number of individuals who received a driving ban due to driving without a licence.
- The number of cases involving breaches of provisional licence terms.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Q1 & Q2 response: During the period between 1st January 2020 and 31st December 2024 there were 929 individuals found to be driving without a valid licence, broken down as follows:
662 individuals were issued with a notice for ‘Drive a motor vehicle otherwise than in accordance with a licence’.
267 individuals were arrested where the reason for arrest was/included ‘Driving - otherwise than in accordance with a licence’.
Q3 & Q6 response: Please be advised that the requested information is not available in a readily retrievable format. Such circumstances fall under ‘Driving Otherwise in Accordance with a Licence’ which is used for both endorsable and non endorsable offences. In order to determine the number which involve an expired licence or breaches of provisional licence terms, it would be necessary to review and research each and every offence in response to Q1 on an individual basis. At approximately 10 minutes per record, this would equate to 155 hours and; therefore, the work involved in locating and retrieving the requested information exceeds the cost threshold of £450, which equates to 18 hours work at a standard rate of £25 per hour, as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to refining your request; however, due to the volume of records that would need to be manually reviewed, I am unable to suggest a way to do this within the fees limit.
Q4 & Q5 response: Information in relation to fines issued and driving bans imposed by the Court is not information held by the force and you may wish to direct your request to HMCTS.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB