Editorial Policy

Purpose of this policy

This page explains how content is researched, written, sourced, reviewed, and corrected on UK Driving Tools. It exists so anyone — a reader, a journalist, or a search engine — can see exactly what standards our guides and calculators are held to, rather than taking that on trust.

For who writes our content, see our Authors page. For who we are and how the site is funded, see About.

Our editorial standards

Every piece of content on this site — calculators and guides alike — is held to the same core standards:

• Accuracy first. Figures, rates, and legal thresholds are checked against official sources before publication, not estimated from memory or copied from other websites.
• Named authorship. Every guide has a named writer with visible credentials, not an anonymous "team" byline.
• Sources are shown. Every guide links to the official sources its figures come from, so you can verify anything yourself.
• Honest about limits. Where a calculator can't account for individual circumstances — a specific insurer, a specific court, a specific postcode — we say so explicitly rather than implying false precision.
• Kept current. Content is revisited when the underlying rules or rates change, not left to go stale indefinitely.

How an article or calculator gets published

1. Research — the writer gathers the relevant rules, rates, or formulas from official sources (GOV.UK, DVLA, Sentencing Council, RAC, ABI, Ofgem, or DVSA, depending on topic).
2. Drafting — the guide or calculator is written with worked examples, not just bare figures, so the reasoning is visible and checkable.
3. Source verification — every claim and figure is checked against its original source a second time before publishing, and every source is linked at the bottom of the page.
4. Publication — the page goes live with a visible publish date, author byline, and a "last reviewed" date.
5. Ongoing review — pages are revisited when GOV.UK, DVLA, or the Sentencing Council update their guidance (see the review cadence below).

Sourcing standards

We prioritise primary and official sources over secondary reporting wherever possible:

• Legal and regulatory figures (penalty points, speeding bands, VED rates) — sourced directly from GOV.UK, the DVLA, and Sentencing Council publications
• Pricing data (fuel prices, insurance premiums, running costs) — sourced from RAC, ABI, and Ofgem published data, not single anecdotal reports
• Real-world figures (MPG, EV efficiency) — cross-referenced against owner-community data (Fuelly, Honest John) where manufacturer figures are known to run optimistic

Review and update cadence

Pages covering figures that change on a fixed schedule (VED rates, which typically update at the Spring Budget) are reviewed at that time. Pages covering figures that move more frequently (fuel prices, electricity tariffs) are reviewed at least quarterly, and sooner if a reader flags something out of date. Every page displays its original publish date and most recent review date so you can judge currency for yourself.

Corrections policy

If you spot an error — an outdated rate, an incorrect formula, a broken link — email us with the page URL, what's wrong, and a source for the correct figure if you have one.

• Factual errors affecting a calculator's output are corrected as a priority, typically within a few business days of being confirmed
• Minor corrections (typos, broken links, clarity edits) are made without a separate changelog note
• Significant corrections that change a figure a reader may have already relied on are noted with an updated "last reviewed" date

We don't quietly rewrite history on anything that materially changes a published figure — if a number was wrong, the review date reflects that it's been revisited.

Editorial independence & advertising

UK Driving Tools is funded by Google AdSense advertising. Advertisers have no input into, preview of, or influence over our content, calculators, or the figures we publish. We do not accept payment to feature, recommend, or favourably describe any insurer, broker, or other company.

Author attribution

Every guide is attributed to the specific writer who researched and wrote it, with their credentials and areas of focus shown in an author box on the article and on our Authors page. We don't publish under generic "editorial team" bylines for content that has a genuine individual author.

Use of tools in content production

Our writers use standard research and productivity tools, including AI-assisted drafting and editing tools, as part of the writing process. Every fact, figure, and formula is independently verified against the official sources listed on each page regardless of how a draft was produced — tool-assisted drafting does not change our sourcing or verification standard, and a named human writer is accountable for every published page.

Contact for editorial concerns

For corrections, sourcing questions, or any concern about the accuracy or independence of our content, email hello@ukdrivingtools.co.uk or use our Contact page. We aim to respond within 1–2 business days.