Motoring and driving: your questions answered
Driving test pass rates and waits, cars and electric vehicles on UK roads, fuel duty, MOT results, speeding offences and the 2030 petrol car phase-out.
How much is fuel duty on petrol and diesel?
Fuel duty on petrol and diesel is 52.95p a litre until 31 December 2026, according to HMRC's amended fuel duty rates for 2026 to 2027, published on 22 May 2026. That rate includes a temporary 5p cut first made in March 2022. Under the current legislative default it rises to 55.95p on 1 January 2027 and 57.95p on 1 March 2027, but the government says it will confirm final rates at Budget 2026.
VAT at 20% is charged on the pump price including the duty. Receipts are published monthly in HMRC's Hydrocarbon Oils Bulletin.
Claims about duty "freezes" and "cuts" depend on the baseline: 52.95p is 5p below the 57.95p rate in force before 23 March 2022. For pump prices, see where to find official fuel prices.
Related: Where can I find official UK fuel prices? · What is the VAT rate in the UK? · How much tax revenue does the UK collect?
How long is the wait for a driving test?
In August 2026 the median wait between booking a car driving test and taking it was 11.1 weeks across Great Britain, and 40.8% of tests were taken within 7 weeks of booking, according to the DVSA's monthly waiting time table (DRT121G), updated on 9 September 2026. On a second measure, it took an average of 20 weeks until at least 10% of a test centre's weekly slots were still free to book.
The table, on the DVSA's driving test data page, goes back to 2019 and covers each country, region and test centre. The DVSA explains how new slots are released in its guidance on driving test appointments.
Check which measure a claim uses. The median wait reflects tests actually taken, including rebooked ones, while the 10% measure reflects slots on offer, and the DVSA notes that its official target measure excludes some centres.
Related: What is the UK driving test pass rate? · How many people have a driving licence in the UK?
How many penalty points before you lose your licence?
You can be disqualified from driving if you build up 12 or more penalty points within 3 years, according to GOV.UK's guidance on penalty points. New drivers have their licence revoked if they reach 6 or more points within 2 years of passing their test, and must apply for a new provisional licence and pass both the theory and practical tests again.
The minimum penalty for speeding is a £100 fine and 3 points, unless a speed awareness course is offered, and speeding endorsement codes carry 3 to 6 points. Most endorsements stay on a driving record for 4 years; some, including drink and drug driving, stay for 11.
You can check your own points with the view your driving licence service. Endorsement rules in Northern Ireland are different.
Related: How many speeding offences are there each year? · How many people have a driving licence in the UK?
How many electric cars are there in the UK?
There were 1,737,000 licensed zero emission cars in the UK at the end of December 2025, 35% more than a year earlier and about 5% of all licensed road-using cars, according to the Department for Transport's vehicle licensing statistics: 2025. Zero emission means battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell; plug-in hybrids are counted separately.
In 2025, 473,000 new zero emission cars were registered, 23% of all new car registrations, up from 19% in 2024, while new petrol car registrations fell 19% to 610,000. Quarterly figures by local authority are in the data tables.
Compare like with like: some claims count plug-in hybrids as electric cars, and the share of new sales is far higher than the share of all cars on the road. For charging, see public charger numbers.
Related: How many cars are there in the UK? · How many public electric car charging points are there in the UK? · When will new petrol and diesel cars be banned in the UK?
How many people die in drink-drive crashes?
An estimated 220 people were killed in drink-drive collisions in Great Britain in 2024, within a range of 190 to 250 and 16% fewer than in 2023, according to the Department for Transport's drink-drive collision statistics, published on 30 July 2026. About 1,740 people were killed or seriously injured, and around 6,350 people were casualties of any severity.
The estimates are given as a range and arrive about 18 months after the year ends because they draw on coroners' data on alcohol levels as well as police reports. The Home Office's roads policing statistics show 24,823 roadside breath tests were positive or refused in 2024 in the forces with comparable data, 15% of tests carried out.
For all road deaths, see how many people die on UK roads.
Related: How many people die on UK roads each year? · How many speeding offences are there each year? · How many people die from alcohol each year in the UK?
How many cars are there in the UK?
There were 34.5 million licensed road-using cars in the UK at the end of December 2025, out of 41.5 million road-using licensed vehicles, according to the Department for Transport's vehicle licensing statistics: 2025, published on 29 April 2026. Counting all licensed vehicles, the total was 42.3 million, 1% more than a year earlier.
The average licensed car was 10 years old, and 2,617,000 vehicles were registered for the first time in 2025. The quarterly data tables break the figures down by fuel type, make and model, keepership and local authority.
Licensed means taxed or exempt from vehicle tax; vehicles declared off the road with a SORN are counted separately. DfT notes that industry new-registration counts differ from its own because they do not include all imported vehicles. For traffic levels, see road traffic statistics.
Related: How many electric cars are there in the UK? · Where can I find road traffic statistics? · How many people have a driving licence in the UK?
What is the UK driving test pass rate?
The car driving test pass rate in Great Britain was 50.0% in 2025 to 2026, when 1,000,043 of 1,998,621 practical tests were passed, according to the DVSA's driving test and theory test data for cars. In April to June 2026 the rate was 51.3%, in tables last updated on 3 September 2026.
The same page has pass rates for every test centre, by age and gender, for first attempts and for automatic cars, plus theory test results. Across the series, which starts in 2007 to 2008, the annual pass rate has stayed between about 44% and 50%.
Test centre rates are based on where a test was taken, not where the learner lives, and small centres can swing from year to year. Tests in Northern Ireland are run separately by the Driver and Vehicle Agency and are not included.
Related: How long is the wait for a driving test? · How many people have a driving licence in the UK? · How many people die on UK roads each year?
How many public electric car charging points are there in the UK?
There were 121,171 public electric vehicle chargers in the UK on 1 July 2026, 10% more than a year earlier, according to the Department for Transport's electric vehicle charging infrastructure statistics. Of these, 28,887 were rated at 50kW or more.
That is about 175 public chargers per 100,000 people, ranging from 345 per 100,000 in London to 60 in Northern Ireland. The tables also break the count down by local authority, parliamentary constituency, power band and type of location, and compare it with the number of plug-in vehicles.
DfT compiles the counts from a commercial charge point database, and they cover public chargers only, not home or workplace chargers. Grant schemes for home and workplace charging are reported in separate tables on the same page.
Related: How many electric cars are there in the UK? · When will new petrol and diesel cars be banned in the UK?
What is the MOT pass rate?
Of 33.3 million MOT tests on cars, vans and passenger vehicles with up to 12 seats (classes 3 and 4) in Great Britain in 2025 to 2026, 27.5% failed at first, and 22.3% still failed after minor defects were fixed during the test, according to the DVSA's MOT testing data for Great Britain. That means about 72.5% passed first time.
The initial fail rate has fallen from 35.4% in 2016 to 2017. The tables are updated every three months, most recently with April to June 2026, and show the most common defect categories for each vehicle class. To check one vehicle, use the MOT history service.
The DVSA says these figures are not official statistics, and they count initial tests only, excluding retests and abandoned tests. Northern Ireland runs its own vehicle testing.
Related: How many cars are there in the UK? · How bad are potholes and roads in England?
When will new petrol and diesel cars be banned in the UK?
Sales of new cars powered only by petrol or diesel engines are due to end in 2030, and all new cars and vans must be zero emission from 2035, the government confirmed in its April 2025 response to the consultation on phasing out new petrol and diesel cars. Full hybrids and plug-in hybrids can still be sold new between 2030 and 2035, and so can new petrol and diesel vans.
The phase-out is delivered through the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which requires manufacturers to make a rising share of their new car and van sales zero emission each year. The rules apply to new sales; they do not stop people driving or selling existing petrol and diesel cars.
For progress, DfT figures show zero emission cars made up 23% of new car registrations in 2025; see how many electric cars there are.
Related: How many electric cars are there in the UK? · How many public electric car charging points are there in the UK? · What are UK greenhouse gas emissions?
How many speeding offences are there each year?
Police forces in England and Wales, excluding the Metropolitan Police, recorded 2,536,194 speed limit offences in 2024, 86% of the 2,934,790 motoring offences on the national fixed penalty system, according to the Home Office's roads policing statistics, published on 19 March 2026. Speeding offences rose 9% on 2023, and 98% were detected by a camera.
The Metropolitan Police recorded a further 491,828 speed limit offences, up 25%, which the release reports separately. It also shows whether offences ended in a fixed penalty, a speed awareness course or court action, and covers roadside breath tests.
Because the Met is reported separately, add the two figures with care. Court outcomes for motoring offences are in the Ministry of Justice's criminal justice statistics. Penalties are explained in penalty points and bans.
Related: How many penalty points before you lose your licence? · How many people die in drink-drive crashes? · How many people die on UK roads each year?
How many people have a driving licence in the UK?
DVLA records held 43,248,130 full driving licences and 10,539,872 provisional licences in Great Britain on 15 August 2026, according to the GB driving licence data published by the Department for Transport. Of the full licences, 23.1 million were held by men and 20.1 million by women. The tables, by age and gender, are updated every three months.
The DVLA warns that its records include some people who no longer drive, live abroad or have died, so they overstate the number of active drivers. The National Travel Survey gives survey estimates of licence holding and car access in England; it found 25% of households had no car in 2025.
Northern Ireland licences are issued separately by the Driver and Vehicle Agency and are not in these figures.
Related: What is the UK driving test pass rate? · How many cars are there in the UK? · How many penalty points before you lose your licence?
These answers say where official figures are published and how they are defined. They give no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request.