Why is a physical driving licence still necessary if police sees everything in their database?

gilbutre

They see MOT history and tax status of the car. Can't they see information about the registered driver's driving licence (its expiration date for instance) and whether it has been confiscated after some infraction in the past?

SID160991SID

What if im driving someone else's car as a third party? I get what your saying and agree but isn't it just easier to have a physical licence? We already rely on computers far to much IMO ��

Pennywise

I don't think DVLA record such a thing as "registered driver". They have records of registered keepers, and records of people with driving licences, which are two separate things entirely. I don't think their databases are linked.

AndyMc.....

gilbutre wrote: »

They see MOT history and tax status of the car. Can't they see information about the registered driver's driving licence (its expiration date for instance) and whether it has been confiscated after some infraction in the past?

Yes they can see everything even your photo.

TooManyPoints

Yes they can see everything even your photo.

Indeed they can. But the people from whom you might, say, rent a car, cannot.

agrinnall

TooManyPoints wrote: »

Indeed they can. But the people from whom you might, say, rent a car, cannot.

This has hit the nail on the head.



To the OP: even if the police don't need to see a licence to get the information that relates to it there are other people who have a need to see your licence in certain circumstances, would you suggest that they all have a right to access your DVLA data too?

AndyMc.....

agrinnall wrote: »

This has hit the nail on the head.



To the OP: even if the police don't need to see a licence to get the information that relates to it there are other people who have a need to see your licence in certain circumstances, would you suggest that they all have a right to access your DVLA data too?

What are they doing when you produce a code for them?

Car_54

Does every policeman have access to the PNC? I know they carry a lot of kit these days, but ....

TooManyPoints

What are they doing when you produce a code for them?

They are looking at the driving record for the driver for whom that code has been supplied. So, I am disqualified from driving. I get my mate Bert, who has a clean licence to produce a code. I go to the hire company and present that code. "Oh good!" says Mr Hertz "A lovely clean record. Here's the keys".

Or perhaps not. Mr Avis will want some proof that I am the person to whom the code relates. And that's where the physical driving licence comes in..

AndyMc.....

Car_54 wrote: »

Does every policeman have access to the PNC? I know they carry a lot of kit these days, but ....

Define access.

Being physically able to use the pnc in person no, but then every control room has access and every officer is in contact with a control room. No reason you they can email your driving record to the road side.

PNC is in a somewhat outdated format, DVS is a better system for licence records if the person has ever held a licence as it bring up a photo if they have or held a photo licence.

AndyMc.....

TooManyPoints wrote: »

They are looking at the driving record for the driver for whom that code has been supplied. So, I am disqualified from driving. I get my mate Bert, who has a clean licence to produce a code. I go to the hire company and present that code. "Oh good!" says Mr Hertz "A lovely clean record. Here's the keys".

Or perhaps not. Mr Avis will want some proof that I am the person to whom the code relates. And that's where the physical driving licence comes in..

How does that help if it's a non photo licence?