Introduction

Ever wondered why when your test candidate signs the DL25 that it says you must be resident in the country for 185 days?

The short answer: It’s the legal test for “Normal residence”.

What it means

UK law requires you to be normally resident in Great Britain to get a provisional licence and to take theory and practical driving tests. “Normal residence” is defined as living in the country for at least 185 days in the last 12 months.

We as a rule of thumb say it’s 6 months, but doubling up on 185 gives 370 which is more than half the year, which is 365 or 366 long in a leap year. So if it was 183 that would be exactly half a leap year and cover the years that were not leap years. So why 185 days?

It comes down to how we measure months and also what sort of months we use. There are calendar months, January, February etc. and these vary from 28-31 days in length.

So if you start counting the days in consecutive months you will notice that the maximum number of days you can have within any 6 month period is 184. These are the days using the months July and August both of which have 31 days and are the only two of 31 days that are next to each other.

The minimum number of days you can have within any 6 month period is 181 which uses February which is the only month with 28 days.

So 184 plus 1 day to go over the 6 months gives us 185 as our total.

Its Legal Basis

This 185-day threshold comes from EU Directive 2006/126/EC (Article 12), implemented in the UK via the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Regulations 1999 (SI 1999/2864). The UK kept this definition after Brexit.

This 185 days was not thrust upon us by some European bureaucrat, but is a period of law, common in the UK. Perhaps most importantly summary offences which covers most driving offences are dealt with within a 6 month time frame by a magistrates court. More serious ones such as death by dangerous driving need to go to a crown court and are outside the 6 month rule.

Why it exists

To ensure the licence is issued where you actually live, so records, penalties, disqualifications, and test integrity are properly managed and to prevent licence tourism.

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