Driving License question

slinga

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Back to slinga's original post...

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I'm not in UK at the moment and only got sketchy details of the Budget.

Is it correct that after June this year paper driving licenses will no longer be 'valid' and if renewed then the photo license will be required.

How will this effect or not hiring cars overseas where you have to show your driving license?

QQuaver

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/driving-licence-changes

Aretnap

It has been the case for a long time that you can no longer get an old style paper licence - if you renew it you'll be issued with a photocard. However the old style licences remain valid. You don't have to renew them and get a photocard unless you have to update your licence for some other reason, eg because you change address.

The change which is coming in in June affects new style licences - the paper counterpart is being scrapped and new style licences will consist solely of a photocard. However old style paper licences are unaffected.

At some point in the future all remaining old style paper licences will be recalled and and everyone who still has one will have to get a photocard instead. However there's currently no timescale for this to happen, other than that it has to be done by 2033 to comply with an EU directive.

That said old style paper licences will continue to get rarer over the years and while they remain valid, it's possible that you might start to get odd looks from staff at foreign hire companies who've never seen them before.

Iceweasel

The problem is exacerbated by people not updating the photo on their PhotoCard licence every 10 years.

According to an article by the AA there are over 2 million people with 'expired' PhotoCards.

With no paper counterpart those people will have nothing ;in-date' to show that they have a valid licence when hiring a car.

I doubt that an 'expired' PhotoCard will be acceptable - if it ever was.

Hire companies are to get access to the UK DVLA database - but will foreign ones get that too? How about data protection?

As Aretnap says the number of people holding the pre-1998 paper licence must be diminishing - it can only be people who have not changed their address or their name in the last 17 years.

Some people are holding doggedly on to their bit of paper - but inevitably they will all be replaced or lapse at age 70.

Strider590

Many people are holding on to their old paper licences because they see the photocard renewal thing for what it is..... Stealth tax.

bod1467

If you need to update your license in any way (e.g. change of address), if you have multiple license categories (e.g. car and bike) then it might be pertinent to "lose" your paper license and bear the full cost of getting it replaced with the photocard version ... it's not unheard of for license categories to go missing.

Unless you still have your pass certificate then there's no evidence of your entitlement for the missing category ... until you "find" your old paper license.

PDC

Had me worried there, from that link

"Paper driving licences issued before the photocard was introduced in 1998 will remain valid and should not be destroyed."

Have not updated mine as the cost of renewal every ten years, and was there not talk of shortening that too recently?, seemed excessive.

Iceweasel

PDC wrote: »

Had me worried there, from that link

"Paper driving licences issued before the photocard was introduced in 1998 will remain valid and should not be destroyed."

Have not updated mine as the cost of renewal every ten years, and was there not talk of shortening that too recently?, seemed excessive.

I take it you mean not exchanged your licence as opposed to not updated it.

I can't see how one can choose not to update one's licence - it's free anyway.

Those who change their name e.g. by marriage, are under no compulsion to update, but you must have a contactable address.

I'm unaware of any references to shortening the 10 year validity - have I missed some recent announcement?

AdrianC

PDC wrote: »

Have not updated mine as the cost of renewal every ten years, and was there not talk of shortening that too recently?, seemed excessive.

I know. That whole £1.40 per year. Extortion...

No, there's been no (well, none based in reality) suggestion that the life of the photocard would be reduced. A passport is valid for a decade, why would other photo ID need to be replaced more often?

2033 is the last possible date for non-photocard licences to be valid. By that date, it will only be those over 52yo, under 70, and who haven't changed address in the previous three and a half decades that won't already have a photocard licence...

[Deleted User]

The old paper licence will be extinct eventually anyway, once the last person to be issued one reaches the age of 70.

forgotmyname

Damn i forgot that i will need a photocard licence when i am 70. better start saving i guess.

Probably be £10,000 to update the photocard by then though.