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Motoring news

Driving licences: almost one in five inaccurate

03/03/2009

Officials believe that around eight million drivers in the UK carry the wrong address details on their driving licence, it has emerged.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)'s estimate - that 18.5% of all licences display an inaccurate address for the licence-holder - was revealed in answer to a parliamentary question last week. If correct, the estimate means that around 7,900,000 licences are out-of-date.

In a warning to motorists, the RAC Foundation has pointed out that drivers face a fine of up to £1,000 if their licence details are found to be incorrect, and that they also risk invalidating their car insurance.

The Foundation's director, Professor Stephen Glaister, said that many drivers seemed to be unaware that they were breaking the law by not keeping their details current.

"In the long run the DVLA must ensure drivers are made aware of what to do when they move house. And given that vehicle records are 97% accurate why can't the agency cross reference information to keep a more complete record of cars and motorists?"

Answering the initial parliamentary question, Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said that the responsibility for keeping records up-to-date rests with the licence-holder, but that "[the] DVLA is not complacent about accuracy".

"The task is to encourage and support drivers and vehicle keepers to meet their obligations and, to that end, a dedicated accuracy-improvement team has been established to improve matters," he added.