Cengolio · Fines · Codes · MS70
MS70 : driving with uncorrected defective eyesight
Checked 22 July 2026 · How we check our figures
What it means
MS70 turns the oldest test on the licence into an offence: driving with uncorrected defective eyesight, s. 96 RTA 1988, the standard being the number plate read at 20 metres that every driving test opens with. The roadside version has teeth beyond the points: where a driver fails it, the police can ask the DVLA to revoke the licence urgently, on the spot, a route campaigned into practice as Cassie's Law. Its refusal twin is MS80, and the pair travel together.
Points and how long it stays
3 points.
On the licence for 4 years from the date of the offence.
The MS codes are the register's junk drawer, offences that share a letter rather than a statute: dangerous parking (MS10, s. 22 RTA 1988), unlawful pillions (MS20, s. 23), the street-games relic MS30 with the table's only 2 points, racing on the highway (MS50, s. 12, where the ban is obligatory), the eyesight pair MS70 and MS80 under s. 96, the residual box MS60, and the family's heavyweight MS90, failing to name the driver, 6 points and a page of its own. Most of the family runs flat 3s on the 4-year offence clock (gov.uk, checked 2026-07-22), which makes it easy to underestimate: the drawer's contents count towards totting exactly like everything else. The arithmetic sits in the penalty points calculator at /fines/penalty-points.
The usual route
A police stop typically ends in an endorsable fixed penalty carrying the flat 3 points (gov.uk, checked 2026-07-22); there is no routine camera version of this code.
If it goes to court
In court the fine is income-banded at the lower bands; mechanics in the fine bands guide.
Read next
Guide: Eyesight medical revocation →
Calculator: the code decoder, every code on the official list →
Authority
gov.uk, Penalty points (endorsements), checked 2026-07-22