Up to two million drivers face £1,000 fine
Failing to update your photo-card driving licence could land you a severe fine.
As many as two million drivers face £1,000 fines for failing to update their photo-card driving licences.
More than 30 million drivers in the UK now have photo-card licences, which are usually valid for a decade. When you renew your licence you are legally required to renew the photograph too.
The £1,000 fine
Unfortunately, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), which issues the licences, believes that around two million drivers have failed to do this.
And that could land them a £1,000 fine, should they be pulled over by the police.
The DVLA claims that it contacts drivers with a reminder form when the expiry date is getting close.
How to update your driving licence
You can renew the photo on your driving licence online if you have a valid UK passport which has been issued in the last five years, by using your Government Gateway ID. You can register for one on the Gateway website.
To apply online you’ll need to pay £20 by debit or credit card, and provide details of your previous addresses over the past three years as well as your National Insurance number.
However, this will mean that the new photo on your driving licence will be the same as that on your passport.
You can also renew your photo at the Post Office. You can find a list of suitable Post Offices on the Post Office website. You will need to fill out a D798 form, while you’ll be charged an additional £4.50 processing fee on top of the normal £20 fee.
Finally, you can renew you photo by post. Again, you’ll need to fill in the D798 form and post this off alongside a new passport-style photo taken within the last month, the photocard and paper counterpart of your current licence and a cheque or postal order for the £20 fee.
This should then be sent off to:
DVLA
Swansea
SA99 1DH
When else should I update my licence?
Your driving licence needs to be updated when you change your name. You should include the original documents confirming your new name.
You should also update your licence when you move house. In both instances, there is no fee for updating your licence.
Fail to do so and you may again be subject to a fine of up £1,000.
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Comments
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I had an old paper licence and went online to apply for the new card (I'd also changed address so the paper one wasn't legal anyway). Near the end of the process you can put in your passport number and they can try and use that photo, so it's all done online. I didn't have to provide a photo, therefore - the only thing I needed to post was my old licence. The new card arrived 3 days after applying online! Amazing - didn't cost anything either. Well impressed!
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@TJ I check when I noticed this. Looks like europe will make us all carry a photo id by 2015 so looks like I might have to trade in the old paper one in the next 2 years. Deep joy something else I have to remember to do. Still I think I'll wait for the invite as mine does not expire for quite a long time so if they don't tell me I still have a valid licence as far as I am concerned. At least it looks like I can just apply on line as just got a new passport last year
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I was under the impression that one's surname had no legal bearing as one inherited it, and therefore you could change it at will, all it needed was to attach a piece of paper to your birth certificate declaring that henceforth you wished to be known as:... However, your christian names, having been given to you, were unchangable without deed poll or private act of Parliament etc.. If this is still the case, and all you'd done is get married or something and changed your surname, one could simply change one's name back to whatever the driver's licence said it was whenever you were stopped by the police. Can anyone tell me if the law has changed since the late 1970s when I last investigated the issue of names? I wouldn't put it past governments to mess us all around and make life unnecessarily complex.
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17 February 2013