D100

Driving
licences
For more information go to www.direct.gov.uk/driving

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Contents
How to apply for your driving licence................ 3
Provisional licences............................................ 4
When you pass your driving test....................... 5
The Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995........... 5
Your entitlement to drive.................................... 6
When to renew your licence............................... 6
How to change your address on your licence....... 7
How to change your name on your licence....... 7
How to renew the photo on your licence........... 7
How to get a replacement licence..................... 8
Can I drive while my licence is with DVLA?....... 8
Penalty points and driving disqualifications...... 9
Your health....................................................... 11
Licences from other countries......................... 15
Visiting another country................................... 16
The Data Protection Act and you..................... 16
If you have any questions................................ 17
Information leaflets........................................... 17
Our service standards...................................... 18
How to apply for your
driving licence
To apply for your driving licence you need to fill in either:

• form D1 – application for a driving

licence (for all driving licences except
those for lorries and buses); or

• form D2 – application for a lorry

or bus licence.

You can order application packs for the D1 and D2

online from www.direct.gov.uk/motoringforms
or from us by phoning 0300 790 6801 (between
8am and 8.30pm Monday to Friday, and between
8am and 5.30pm on Saturdays).
You can also get these application packs from:
• Post Office® branches (D1 only)
• Traffic Area Offices (D2 only), and
• DVLA local offices.
You can use these application packs to apply for a:
• provisional licence
• full licence
• replacement licence
• new licence after it has been withdrawn
for health reasons, or
• new licence after you have been disqualified
from driving.
You can also use them to:
• renew your photo
• change your details
• renew your licence
• remove out-of-date points or details
of driving disqualifications, or
• exchange a Northern Ireland or non-British
licence for a British one.
You may need to pay a fee (see the relevant
application form).
Apply online:
You can now apply for many of the transactions
online. Wherever you see this icon, you can
apply online at the website address given.
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Provisional licences
www.direct.gov.uk/provisional

To learn to drive you must have a valid provisional

licence. We will normally send this to you within
3 weeks of receiving your application. It might take
longer if we have to check your medical or
personal details.
You must not drive until you receive your
licence, as this will give details of what and
when you can start driving.

Learning to drive cars

Learners must be supervised by a qualified driver who
must:
• be at least 21
• hold a full valid British, Northern Ireland or EU
Community licence in the appropriate category, and
• have held that licence for three years or more.
For cars and motorcycles
• If you have never held a GB driving licence you need
to apply for a provisional licence using form D1.
• You can start learning to drive a car at 17
and at 16 for mopeds.
For motorcycles only
• If your provisional motorcycle licence was issued
before 1 February 2001 it was only valid for
two years. If you did not pass a test by the end
of those two years, you may apply for another
provisional licence.
• If your provisional motorcycle licence was issued
on or after 1 February 2001 your entitlement will
be valid until your 70th birthday.
• Since March 2002, driving licences have
automatically allowed you to learn to ride a
motorcycle. (That is, you have ‘provisional
motorcycle entitlement’).
• If you have a full moped licence that includes
provisional motorcycle entitlement, that is also
valid until your 70th birthday.
Note: you must successfully complete a compulsory
basic training (CBT) course for a moped or motorcycle
before you can ride on a public road. You will get a
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training certificate (DL196) which is valid for two years
and will need to be shown to your examiner when
you take your practical test. For more information visit
www.direct.gov.uk/learning2drive or phone the
Driving Standards Agency on 0300 200 1122.

For lorries and buses only

• You must hold a full licence for driving a car and
you need to apply for a provisional lorry or bus
licence using form D2.
• You will need to get the ‘Medical Examination
Report’ (D4) (included in the D2 application
pack) filled in by a doctor.

When you pass your driving test

• You can drive unsupervised as soon as you
pass your test.
• We will normally issue you with a full licence
automatically if your name is correct on your
photocard driving licence.
• If we cannot issue your licence automatically,
you must send the test pass certificate to us
in order to claim your new entitlements on your
driving licence.
• We will normally send your driving licence to
you within 3 weeks of receiving your application.
It might take longer if we have to check your
medical or personal details.

The Road Traffic (New Drivers)

Act 1995
You will lose your licence if you get six or more penalty
points within two years of the following:
• Passing a first driving test in GB.
• Exchanging a licence issued in the EC, the
Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or Gibraltar.
The two-year period begins from the date you
first passed a driving test in your home country.
• Exchanging a driving licence from a designated
country see section ‘Licences from other
countries’ and passing a British driving test to
gain additional driving entitlements. The two
year period begins from the date you passed a
driving test in Great Britain.

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Any valid penalty points you receive before passing
your test will count towards the total of six. Points
you get after the two-year period will also count if
you committed the offence during that period.
You cannot appeal against this decision. The only
thing you can appeal against is the conviction that led
to the penalty points. The relevant court will be able
to give you advice on how to appeal. Once the court
tells us you have made an appeal, we will not revoke
(withdraw) your licence while the appeal is continuing.
If you accept a fixed penalty notice you cannot
appeal. To get your full licence back, you must:
• get a provisional licence and drive as a learner, and
• pass the theory and practical tests again.
Passing the theory and practical tests does not
remove the penalty points from your licence, and if
the total reaches 12 within three years you may be
disqualified from driving.

Your entitlement to drive

• Your entitlement to drive cars and ride motorcycles
and mopeds normally lasts until your 70th birthday.
After that you need to renew your licence every
three years.
• Your entitlement to drive a large goods vehicle
or passenger-carrying vehicle normally lasts until
your 45th birthday. After that you need to renew
your licence every five years until your 65th
birthday, and every year from then on.
• If you have a medical condition which needs
to be reviewed regularly, you may be given
entitlement to drive for a period of one, two or
three years. Please see ‘Your health’ section.
• We will send you a reminder three months
before your current licence ends.

When to renew your licence

• Photocard licences are only valid for up to
10 years, although your entitlement to drive
will normally be valid until your 70th birthday.
• If you hold a photocard driving licence, by law
you must renew your photo every 10 years.
You could be fined up to £1000 if you don’t.
• If you provide a photo when you are 70 or over,

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 you will not need to update your photo again
unless you want to.
• If you hold a paper licence this is valid until your
70th birthday. At that point, you will need to
apply for a photocard licence.
• We will send you a reminder before your current
licence ends.

How to change your address on

your licence
www.direct.gov.uk/changeofaddress
To tell us about a change of address you can:
• if you have a photocard licence, write your
new address in the changes section on the
paper counterpart and you must send both the
counterpart and photocard to us
• if you have lost either part, you will need to
apply for a replacement licence by filling in
form D1.

How to change your name on

your licence
To tell us about a change of name you must
fill in form D1. Please see leaflet ‘How to fill in your
application for a driving licence’ (INF1D) for
more information.
Important – you must tell us about any change
of name or address. If you don’t, you could be
fined up to £1000.

How to renew the photo

on your licence
To renew the photo on your licence you can:
• fill in the reminder that we have sent you, or
• fill in form D1.
Please see leaflet INF1D for more information.

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How to get a replacement licence
www.direct.gov.uk/replacelicence
If your driving licence has been lost, stolen,
damaged or destroyed, you can apply for a
replacement licence by filling in form D1.
If you have lost both your photocard licence
and the paper counterpart, you can apply for a
replacement photocard licence over the phone
using a credit card or debit card, as long as none
of the details have changed or are incorrect. You
can pay by Visa, Delta, Mastercard and Maestro.
To use this service, phone 0300 790 6801 between
8am and 8.30pm Monday to Friday, and between
8am and 5.30pm on Saturdays.
We will normally send your replacement licence to
you within 3 weeks of receiving your application. It
might take longer if we have to check your medical
or personal details.
If you find your old licence after applying for a
replacement, please return it to DVLA, Swansea,
SA99 1AB with an explanatory note.

Can I drive while my licence

is with DVLA?
You can drive before you receive your replacement
licence back as long as the following apply:
• You have held a GB or Northern Ireland licence
issued since 1 January 1976, or another licence
that can be exchanged for a GB licence. (Please
see leaflet ‘Driving in Great Britain as a visitor or
new resident’ (INF38) for more information).
• You are not disqualified from driving.
• You have not been refused a licence for
medical reasons or for not responding to
medical enquiries.
• You would not be refused a licence for medical
reasons.
• You keep to any special conditions which apply
to the licence.

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Penalty points and driving
disqualifications

If you are convicted of a motoring offence,

the court can:
• put penalty points on your licence
• disqualify you for a set time, or
• do both.
If you get 12 or more penalty points in a three-year
period you may be disqualified from driving.

Penalty points
Points stay on a licence for the following periods.
• 11 years from the date of being convicted of the
following offences.
– Driving while under the influence of drink or
drugs, including causing death by careless
driving while under the influence of drink or
drugs (shown on the licence as DR10, DR20,
DR30, DR80, CD40, CD50, and CD60).
– Causing death by careless driving then failing
or refusing to take a breath, blood or urine
test (shown on the licence as CD70).
• Four years from the date of being convicted
of reckless or dangerous driving, and offences
resulting in a driving disqualification (shown on
the licence as DD40, DD60 and DD80).
• Four years from the date of the offence in all
other cases.
We will automatically remove out-of-date penalty
points if you change your licence for any reason.

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Driving disqualifications
If you are disqualified for less than 56 days:
• The court will stamp the paper counterpart of
your photocard or old-style paper licence and
give it back to you. The stamp will show how
long you are disqualified for.
• You don’t need to renew your licence when the
disqualification ends. Your licence becomes valid
again the day after the disqualification ends.
If you are disqualified for 56 days or more:
• You must surrender your licence.
• You need to apply to have your licence
renewed. If you are not sure when your driving
disqualification ends, contact the court which
disqualified you.
• Two months before your disqualification ends
we will send you an application to renew it.
If you were disqualified for more than two years,
you can ask the court to consider removing the
disqualification after:
• two years – if you were disqualified for between
two and four years
• half the period of the driving ban – if you were
disqualified for between four and 10 years, or
• five years – if you were disqualified for 10 years
or more.
For more information on codes which explain
what penalty points are for, visit our website at
www.direct.gov.uk/penaltypoints or see
leaflet ‘Information on driving licences’ (INS57P),
which you can download from
www.direct.gov.uk/motoringleaflets

How can I get out-of-date penalty

points and disqualification removed?
When penalty points and disqualification have run
out you can apply to have them removed from your
licence.
To do this, fill in:
• form D1 (for an ordinary driving licence), or
• form D2 (for a lorry or bus licence).
Please see either booklet INF1D (for form D1) or
INF2D (for form D2) on how to fill in the forms.

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Your health
You must tell us if you have ever had or currently
have any of the following.

• Diabetes controlled by insulin

• Epilepsy
• Any condition affecting both eyes, or the
remaining eye if you only have one eye (not
including colour blindness, short or long sight)
• Stroke, with any symptoms lasting longer than
one month or TIAs (Transient Ischaemic Attacks)
• Fits or blackouts
• Any type of brain surgery, severe head injury
involving in-patient treatment, or brain tumour
• An implanted cardiac pacemaker
• An implanted cardiac defibrillator (ICD)
• Repeated attacks of sudden disabling
giddiness
• Any other chronic neurological condition
including Multiple Sclerosis, Motor Neurone and
Huntington’s Disease
• A serious problem with memory or periods of
confusion
• Persistent alcohol misuse or dependency
• Persistent drug misuse or dependency
• Serious psychiatric illness or mental ill-health
• Parkinson’s disease
• Sleep apnoea syndrome
• Narcolepsy
• Any condition affecting your visual field (the
surrounding area you can see when looking
directly ahead)
• Total loss of sight in one eye
• Any persistent problem which needs driving to
be restricted to certain types of vehicle or those
with adapted controls
• Severe learning disability.
If you do not tell us about any of the above, you
are committing an offence which could lead to
you being fined up to £1000. If you knowingly
give us false information, or do not give us any
relevant information, to get a driving licence,
you could be sent to prison for up to two years.

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Extra rules for medium and large
vehicles, minibuses or buses
The rules about health are stricter for drivers of
larger vehicles. This is because accidents involving
large vehicles are more likely to result in death or
serious injury.
As well as those conditions already stated you also
need to tell us about:
• angina, other heart conditions or heart operation
• diabetes controlled by tablets
• visual problems affecting either eye, or
• any form of stroke, including TIAs (Transient
Ischaemic Attacks).
Epilepsy
If you want to drive a medium or large vehicle,
minibus or bus you must not have a liability to
epileptic seizures.

Diabetes
If you have diabetes treated by insulin you may not
drive medium or large vehicles, minibuses or
buses unless:
• You held a licence to drive lorries or buses on
1 April 1991, and
• The traffic commissioner who issued the licence
or in whose area you lived knew about the
insulin treatment before January 1991.

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How do I tell you about a health
problem?
• If you are filling in form D1 or form D2, and give
us details in the health section we will then post
you a medical questionnaire to fill in. To save time
you can download the relevant questionnaire
from www.direct.gov.uk/driverhealth and
send it with your application.
• If you already have a licence, download the
appropriate medical questionnaire from
www.direct.gov.uk/driverhealth and sent it to:
Drivers Medical Group
DVLA
Swansea
SA99 1TU.
Phone: 0300 790 6806 (between 8am and
5.30pm Monday to Friday, and between
8am and 1pm on Saturdays)
Lorry and bus drivers phone 0300 790 6807
Textphone: 0300 123 1278
Fax: 0845 850 0095
Email: [email protected]
We will need to know:
• your driver number or your full name
and date of birth, and
• as much detail as possible about
the health problem.
What happens when I tell you about
a health problem?
We’ll send you a medical questionnaire (unless you
are also sending in a ‘Medical Examination Report’
(D4) where it may then not be necessary). It asks
you for permission to let our medical adviser get
reports from your doctor and specialists.

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Medical Examination Report (D4) (for
medium or large vehicles, minibus or
bus drivers/applicants only)
When applying for your first lorry or bus licence, or
renewing an existing licence, you will need to get a
D4 form filled in by your doctor. You also need to
have a D4 filled in if you hold an EC/EEA licence
and are applying for your first lorry or bus licence or
renewing it at age 45 or over.
If you already hold a lorry or bus licence and you
are applying for the other category you must
provide a further D4 form unless you provided one
in the last 12 months. You can download form D4
and ‘Medical Examination Report D4 Information
and useful notes’ (INF4D) from
www.direct.gov.uk/motoringforms

Extra eyesight rules if you want to

drive medium or large vehicles,
minibuses or buses
New drivers
Your eyesight must be at least:
• 6/9 on the Snellen scale in the better eye and
6/12 on the Snellen scale in the other eye (while
wearing glasses or corrective lenses if you need
them), and
• 3/60 in each eye without glasses or corrective lenses.
An optician will be able to tell you about this.

Drivers who held a licence before

1 January 1997
If you had a licence before 1 January 1997 and you
do not meet the eyesight standards above, get more
information from our Drivers Medical Group, DVLA,
Swansea, SA99 1TU (phone 0300 790 6807).

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Licences from other countries
You can exchange a full driving licence issued
within the European Community (EC) or European
Economic Area (EEA) for the equivalent GB licence.
You can also exchange a full car, motorcycle or
moped licence issued by any of the following
countries.

Australia Barbados British Virgin Canada

Islands

Falkland Faröe Gibraltar Hong Kong

Islands Islands*
Japan Monaco New Zealand Republic
of Korea*

Singapore South Africa Switzerland Zimbabwe

*We do not exchange motorcycle entitlement from these countries.

If you have a licence which we do not recognise for

the purpose of exchange, you can drive as a visitor
for up to 12 months from the date you last entered
the UK. If you live in the UK you can drive for up to
12 months from the date you become a resident.
You will not be required to display ‘L’ plates if you
pass your driving test within 12 months of becoming
resident. If the 12 months have passed, to continue
driving you must get a provisional GB licence and
pass a driving test. Rules for learner drivers will apply.

You can only get a GB driving licence if

you are normally resident in Great Britain
To be normally resident you must usually live in the
United Kingdom for 185 days in each calendar year.
Applicants who are not UK citizens or nationals of
another EU or EEA country will not be considered
normally resident if they:
• do not have leave to remain in the UK, or
• are in the country on a temporary basis without
leave to remain either while awaiting a decision
to stay in the UK or following a decision refusing
such an application.

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Visiting another country
Your GB licence allows you to drive in all other
countries in the European Community (EC) or
European Economic Area (EEA). Check with a
motoring organisation if you want to drive in a
country that is not in the EC or EEA. They will tell
you whether you need an International Driving
Permit (IDP). IDPs are issued by the AA, the RAC
and Green Flag National Breakdown Recovery
Club. You must live in Great Britain, have passed a
driving test, and be over 18.

When a licence is no longer needed

The licence should be returned to:
DVLA
Swansea
SA99 1AB.
Enclose a covering letter if you:
• are returning your own licence because
you no longer want to drive, or
• are returning the licence of someone who no
longer wants to drive or who has died.

The Data Protection Act and you

The Data Protection Act 1998 gives you the right to
be told what information we hold about you. If you
want to know what information we hold about you,
please write to us. Include your full name, address
and date of birth. Send your letter, together with
a cheque or postal order for £5 (made payable to
DVLA, Swansea) to:
Driving Licence Validation Team
Driver Customer Services
DVLA
Swansea
SA6 7JL.
Information held on your driver record may be
passed to other Government organisations and
law enforcement agencies. This would be for the
purpose of checking your application, or for the
prevention or detection of crime.

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If you have any questions
Driving licences
• Find out more about driving licences on our
website at www.direct.gov.uk/driverinfo
• Write to:
Driver Customer Services
Correspondence Team
DVLA
Swansea
SA6 7JL.
• Email us at www.direct.gov.uk/emaildvla
• Phone Customer Enquiries Group (Drivers) on
0300 790 6801 between 8am and 8.30pm
Monday to Friday, and between 8am and
5.30pm on Saturdays.

Textphone
If you are deaf or hard of hearing and you have
access to a textphone, phone 0300 123 1278. This
number will not respond to ordinary phones.

Information leaflets
If you need more information, the following leaflets
are available:
• INF28 – Driving a minibus
• INF29 – Minimum test vehicles
• INF30 – Requirements for towing trailers in
Great Britain
• INF38 – Driving in Great Britain(GB) as a visitor
or a new resident
• INF45 – Your photocard driving licence
explained
• INF52 – Special licensing arrangements for
drivers of large vehicles
• INS57P – Information on driving licences
You can download all these leaflets from our
website at www.direct.gov.uk/motoringleaflets
or you can get copies by phoning 0300 790 6801.

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Our service standards

We aim to give you the best possible service.

If you’d like a copy of our ‘Customer Service Guide
and what to do if things go wrong’ (INS101), please
write to:
Driver Customer Services
Correspondence Team
DVLA
Swansea
SA6 7JL.
Fax: 0300 123 0784
Email us at www.direct.gov.uk/emaildvla
Or you can download it from our website at
www.direct.gov.uk/motoringleaflets

Please tell us:

• when we do well
• when we fail to meet our service standards
• how we can improve our services, and
• if you have any comments on any of our
other documents.
Please write to:
Carole Evans
Customer Services Manager
DVLA
Swansea
SA7 0EE.
Fax: 01792 766416
Email us at www.direct.gov.uk/emaildvla

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Notes

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www.direct.gov.uk/driving