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How long does a drink driving ban stay on your licence?

Depending on the offence, endorsements can stay on your licence for 4 or 11 years. They’ll either start from the date of the offence or the date of the conviction.

Your drink driving offence will be coded. For most 4-year endorsements, the points will stay on your record for 4 years from the date of the offence. However, for the following codes, it’ll be 4 years from the date of conviction:

  • DD40, DD60 and DD80 – dangerous or reckless driving.

If your code is listed below, the offence will stay on your driving record for 11 years from the date of conviction:

  • DR10 DR20, DR30, DR31, DR61 and DR80 – drink or drug driving offences

  • CD40, CD50 and CD60 – death caused by careless driving due to drink or drugs

  • CD70 – death caused by careless driving.

Endorsements are valid when they’re active on your licence, and can increase if you are found guilty of other offences. For 4-year endorsements, they’re valid for 3 years; for 11-year endorsements, they’re valid for 10.

After 5 years – whether you have a 4 or 11-year endorsement – points are considered spent. At this point, under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act of 1974, you do not have to disclose your endorsement to car insurance providers (or employers). They can enquire, but legally they are not allowed to use this information to shape your quote.

*51% of consumers could save £535.17 on their Car Insurance. The saving was calculated by comparing the cheapest price found with the average of the next four cheapest prices quoted by insurance providers on Seopa Ltd’s insurance comparison website. This is based on representative cost savings from May 2026 data. The savings you could achieve are dependent on your individual circumstances and how you selected your current insurance supplier.

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