Abolishment of the Paper Driving Licence

The counterpart driving licence was introduced to display driving licence information that could not be included on the photo card licence. These details include the vehicle categories a person is entitled to drive and any current endorsements on their driving licence.

The DVLA states that the abolishment of paper licences is in line with the Government’s Red Tape Challenge and will save drivers around £8million. It also aligns to the DVLA’s Strategic Plan, which includes simplifying their services.

This means that after 8 June 2015, the paper counterpart of a driving licence will no longer have any legal status and endorsements will no longer be recorded on the counterpart of a driving licence.

The DVLA advises that anyone with a paper counterpart licence should destroy their counterpart after 8 June 2015. Photo card licences should not be destroyed.

Around 7 million UK drivers hold a paper driving licence, the paper driving licence was issued before the photocard licence was introduced in 1998.
Paper driving licences will remain valid after 8 June 2015 and should not be destroyed.

At present, it is not mandatory to replace a paper licence with a photocard licence and this will remain the same after 8 June 2015. However, if there is a need to update a name, address or renew a paper driving licence, only a photo card licence will be issued in return.

If you are found guilty of a motor offence or accept a fixed penalty for a motoring offence, you will still have to submit your licence as usual. However, endorsements will no longer be printed or written on your licence but instead will be uploaded on to the driving licence system.

Therefore, a counterpart or paper licence will no longer be an accurate reflection of your driving history, and cannot be used in order to provide details of your driving record.

Driving licence details will now be available to view here.

In order to access any of your driving licence details you will need your driving licence number, national insurance number and the postcode stated on your driving licence.

If you do not have access to the internet or do not wish to use the internet you can also check your driving licence details by contacting the DVLA by post or phone.

The DVLA are developing a new online enquiry service that will allow business and organisations such as employers and hire companies to view the information currently contained on counterpart licences. The police will be able to see a driver’s licence details on their national police computer as normal.

However, when hiring a vehicle abroad you will no longer be able to provide your driver history with your counterpart licence. Instead, anyone wanting to hire a vehicle abroad will need a code from the DVLA in order to show their driving history. Drivers will need to log on to the DVLA website and obtain a code to pass onto the hire company. However, this code only last 72 hours, so if you are intending to hire a car more than 3 days into a trip, you will need to log back on to the DVLA website and request another code. If you do not have access to the internet, you will be able to contact the DVLA by phone to request a code.