More than 10,000 motorists are allowed on the roads despite having 12 or more penalty points on their licence.
Analysis by BBC News shows motorists in the north of England had the most licences with a dozen or more points.
Road safety charities said allowing people with lots of points to stay on the road made a mockery of the system.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency said the figure included people who had served a ban and had successfully reapplied for their licence.
Drivers are usually banned if they get 12 penalty points within three years, but magistrates can choose not to enforce it in “exceptional cases”.
The data, covering Great Britain as of the end of June 2017, also showed:
- The category with the greatest rate of offending was men aged between 25 and 34.
- Men were more likely to have clocked up penalty points than women. About 33 out of every 100,000 male drivers have 12 or more points, compared with under 8 per 100,000 female drivers.
- The most points on a valid licence belong to a 44-year-old woman in Oxfordshire. The licence has 51 penalty points.
- Almost 100 motorists were still allowed to drive despite having at least 24 points on their licences, twice the number that results in a ban if accrued within three years.
Read the full article at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-40862975