Abolition of the Counterpart driving licence

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Please note, this does not affect photocard licences issued by DVA in Northern Ireland.

What this means for you

Customers with existing paper counteparts

If you already hold a paper counterpart, after 8 June 2015 it will no longer have any legal status. You should destroy your paper counterpart after this date but you still need to keep your current photocard driving licence.

Customers with paper driving licences

Paper driving licences issued before the photocard was introduced in 1998 will remain valid and should not be destroyed. If you need to update your name,addressor renew your licence, you will be issued with a photocard only.

Penalty points (endorsements)

From 8 June 2015 penalty points(endorsements) will no longer be shown on driving licence. This information will be held onDVLA’s driver record, and can be checked online, by phone or by post.

How to check your driving licence details

The free View Driving Licence service lets you see what details are on your licence, including what vehicles you can drive and any penalty points you may have.

How to check the driving record of employees

If you rely on the counterpart to check the driving record of employees a new online Share Driving Licence service will be available before the paper counterpart is abolished on 8 June 2015 .

This new service will be offered in addition to the existing checking services already in use https://www.gov.uk/employing-people-to-drive.

The new service is currently only available to organisations invited to test the new service prior to full release in June.

Please note that the permission of the driver concerned is required to obtain information under the existing services and driver permission will also be required under the new Share Driving Licence service.

 

More information can be found here.