From yesterday, Monday 8th June 2015, the paper counterpart of the UK driving licence will no longer be issued by the DVLA. Here’s what you need to know about the changes.
The paper counterpart of the UK driving licence has been used to display information about driving licences that is not included in the photocard, which was introduced in 1998. These details include the vehicle categories that you are entitled to drive and any endorsements (penalty points) that you have received.
Hot on the heels of abolishing the paper tax tisc, the DVLA will no longer issue the paper counterpart of the UK driving licence. The initiative forms part of the DVLA’s aim to digitise motorists’ records, in conjunction with the government’s Red Tape Challenge. The information held on the paper counterpart is already available digitally, and scrapping the counterpart could help save the UK economy an estimated £8 million a year.
So, What Does This Mean for Britain’s 46 Million Motorists?
If you already hold a photocard driving licence along with a paper counterpart, after 8 June 2015, the paper counterpart will no longer have any legal status. You should destroy your paper counterpart after this date but you still need to keep your current photocard driving licence.
If you hold an older style paper driving licence only, which was issued before the photocard was introduced in 1998, then your paper licence will still be valid and should not be destroyed.
If you receive any endorsements after June 8th 2015, these will only be recorded electronically, and will not be printed or written on either photocard driving licences or paper driving licences. This means that from now on, neither will provide any information relating to driving endorsements, although this information will still be available via the DVLA’s driver record.
Your DVLA driver record is available to view online. To see it, simply visit the GOV.UK website and search for “view driving licence”. You will need your driving licence number, your National Insurance number and the postcode on your driving licence to view your information. For those that may need to share their driving record with an employer or a car hire company for example, a code will be generated which can be given to them. For privacy reasons, the code lasts for 72 hours and can only be used once.
You can view the official DVLA video below.