Teens who refuse national service could get driving licence points under Tory plans

Rishi Sunak says he is committed to his national service plans (Photo: Getty Images)

Teenagers who refuse to do national service could get points on their driving licence under Conservative proposals to force the young to serve in the military or do unpaid charity work.

If the Tories win next month’s general election, they have promised to introduce compulsory national service for every 18-year-old in the UK.

The party has said that the precise details, including any punishment for refusing to take part, would be decided by a royal commission of independent experts.

Asked on a Question Time special on Thursday night what the penalties might be, Rishi Sunak said: “Well you’ll have a set of sanctions and incentives and we will look at the models that are existing around Europe to get the appropriate mix of those.”

He added: “There’s all sorts of things that people do across Europe, whether that’s looking at driving licenses, other access to finance, all sorts of other things.”

A Tory source confirmed that one option likely to be considered would be applying points to the driving licences of those who refuse to volunteer for charity or join the military.

The source said: “Ultimately, this will be for the Royal Commission to decide. The Royal Commission will come up with an arrangement that is right for the UK.”

The Conservatives have already announced plans to give licence points to people who are caught fly-tipping, in a separate policy contained in their general election manifesto.

A Cabinet minister earlier sought to play down the proposed sanctions. David TC Davies, the Welsh Secretary, said of the Prime Minister’s remarks on Times Radio: “I think actually he was being pushed as to what sanctions could be in place. And he gave examples of sanctions that are placed elsewhere.

“I think that’s the one you’re referring to might be Latvia. He didn’t say for one minute that that’s what would happen in the UK.

“He said that a Royal Commission would be set up to look at how to make this work and would report back… But as to the sanctions, he didn’t give any indication as to what would take place in the United Kingdom if people didn’t want to take part in that.”

Other countries in Europe which have compulsory national service have a range of penalties for those who refuse, including fines and jail terms in some cases.

The Conservatives have ruled out making it a criminal offence to boycott their proposed national service but insisted there would be very limited exemptions, with full-time work or university study not considered a sufficient excuse to avoid the scheme.

It is unclear what would happen to teenagers who do not drive or have a driving licence.

Election 2024

Rishi Sunak, Sir Keir Starmer and other party leaders are on the campaign trail, and i‘s election live blog is the go-to place for everything on the general election.

All the main parties have launched their manifestos: read i‘s breakdown of all the pledges from the Tories, Green Party, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Reform UK.

i has urged the parties to commit to its Save Britain’s Rivers manifesto to improve our waterways. The Lib Dems became the first to back the campaign, followed by the Green Party. Keir Starmer called the campaign ‘really important’ but stopped short of throwing full support behind it.