FOI 31674

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: HRC0031674/26

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 23^rd September 2026. Please find below the response to your request:

1. The number of fines issued in each financial year since 2021 due to a driving licence address being incorrect or out of date, covering:

2021/22

2022/23

2023/24

2024/25

2025/26

2. The total monetary value of fines collected in each of the above financial years for incorrect or out-of-date driving licence addresses.

Please provide data by year.

Reply

Your request for information has been considered in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”), and I am not obliged to provide the information requested.

S.12(1) of the Act states that a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the “appropriate limit”. For police forces in England and Wales, the "appropriate limit" is £450 or 18 hours of work as set by the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.

The information you have requested is not available in a readily retrievable format. Although our fixed penalty offence recording system shows the numbers of fixed penalty matters due to a driving licence address being incorrect or out of date, this will not be an accurate overall figure as there will be a number of other licence offences linked to other, or more serious matters that have passed directly to court. There is no easy way to pull and compare the data from one system to the next without exceeding the 18hr fees limit.

In order to ascertain whether the information you have requested is held would take in excess of 18 hours we would have to pull and compare the data from one system to the next to obtain an accurate overall figure.

In accordance with s.17(5) of the Act, this acts as a Refusal Notice.

Under s.16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request.

However, in accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request and can provide the information below as this was retrieved during our initial research. This should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests.

1. The number of fines issued in each financial year since 2021 due to a driving licence address being incorrect or out of date, covering:

Caveat (as detailed in the exemption above): This will not be an accurate overall figure as there will be a number of other licence offences linked to other, or more serious matters that have passed directly to court. There is no easy way to pull and compare the data from one system to the next without exceeding the 18hr fees limit.

2. The total monetary value of fines collected in each of the above financial years for incorrect or out-of-date driving licence addresses.

Caveat: The above figures are those resolved via fixed penalty in relation to the cases in question 1. We are unable to provide an accurate response around fines as these are not managed by Police. Both fixed penalty offence and court fines are managed by HMCTS so you may wish to direct your request to them.