How do I replace a lost driving licence?
Short answer
Apply online through GOV.UK. DVLA charges £20 for a replacement photocard in England, Scotland and Wales, and says it should arrive within a week; by post, on form D1 or D2, allow three weeks. Report a stolen licence to the police first. Northern Ireland is separate — the DVA charges £30. Without the card you cannot sit a practical driving test.
Verified · 6 cited sources
The online route is the fast one. DVLA — which licenses drivers in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland — replaces a full or provisional photocard licence that has been lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed for £20, paid by MasterCard, Visa, Electron or Delta debit or credit card, and GOV.UK says the licence should arrive within a week. You must be a resident of Great Britain and not disqualified from driving for any reason. You sign in to apply, and you may be asked to prove your identity with photo ID — which is the awkward part when the photo ID you have just lost is the licence itself.
If you cannot use the online service, DVLA takes applications by phone where you hold a photocard and none of your details have changed. The phone route is closed to you if the licence is damaged, or if it expires within 56 days — 90 days where it is expiring for medical reasons. Otherwise apply by post on form D1 for a car or motorbike licence, or D2 for a lorry or bus licence, both available from most Post Offices. GOV.UK gives three weeks for a postal application, longer if medical or personal details need checking.
The question underneath the question is whether you can still drive. Our reading is that you can, in Great Britain, because the licence card is evidence of an entitlement DVLA already holds on its record rather than the entitlement itself — but none of the cited pages says so in terms, so treat it as our conclusion and not a DVLA statement. What is on the record is the enforcement position. Section 164 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 lets a constable or vehicle examiner require a driver to produce a licence for examination, and subsection (8) gives you a defence if within seven days you produce it in person at a police station you nominated when it was demanded. Northern Ireland is the one place where the position is published: nidirect states the conditions on which you may drive once the DVA has received a valid application.
What the missing card actually blocks is everything that requires you to prove entitlement to a third party. DVSA is explicit that a practical test is cancelled with no refund if you turn up without your licence, that a replacement can take up to 15 days, and that you should rearrange the test if it will not arrive in time. Car hire companies, employers and agencies use DVLA's view or share service instead — you sign in with your driving licence number, National Insurance number and the postcode on the licence to generate a check code valid for 21 days.
That service has a catch worth knowing before you need it: the licence number is printed on the card you have just lost. Find it on an old photocopy, a previous application, an insurance document or a photograph of the card before you assume the share route is open to you. Our further view is that a stolen licence should be treated as an identity problem and not only as a replacement problem, because the card carries your name, date of birth and address together in one place. GOV.UK tells you to contact the police if the licence was stolen, but neither it nor DVSA frames the loss as an identity risk, so that reading is ours.
Northern Ireland is separate. Licensing there is run by the Driver and Vehicle Agency, not DVLA: a replacement costs £30, applied for online or on form DL1 from a Post Office, and DVA aims to process a complete application within 10 working days while asking you to allow six weeks before chasing. DVA states the conditions on which you may drive before the replacement arrives, including having held a Northern Ireland or Great Britain licence issued since 1 January 1976. And if the old licence turns up after you have applied, GOV.UK requires you to return it to DVLA in Swansea with an explanation.
- £20 online, normally delivered within a week; about three weeks by post on form D1 or D2
- Phone applications only for a photocard with unchanged details, and not within 56 days of expiry
- Report a stolen licence to the police before you apply, and keep the crime reference
- A practical driving test is cancelled with no refund if you arrive without the licence
- Hire firms and employers use a check code from DVLA's view or share service, valid for 21 days
- Northern Ireland is the DVA, not DVLA — £30, form DL1, and a 10 working day processing aim
People also ask
Sources & provenance
Facts verified
- 1.Replace a lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed driving licence OfficialDriver and Vehicle Licensing AgencyUsed for: The £20 fee and accepted cards, the one-week delivery estimate for online applications, the requirement to be a GB resident and not disqualified, the identity check on signing in, the instruction to contact the police if the licence was stolen, the duty to return a found licence to DVLA in Swansea, and that Northern Ireland has a separate process
- 2.Replace a driving licence: apply by phone or by post OfficialDriver and Vehicle Licensing AgencyUsed for: Who can apply by phone, the bars where the licence is damaged or expires within 56 days or 90 days for medical reasons, forms D1 and D2 and their availability from Post Offices, the three-week postal timescale, and what must be enclosed with a paper licence application
- 3.Road Traffic Act 1988, section 164 LegislationThe National ArchivesUsed for: The power of a constable or vehicle examiner to require production of a driving licence, and the subsection (8) defence of producing it in person within seven days at a police station nominated at the time, or as soon as reasonably practicable
- 4.Driving test: what to take with you OfficialDriver and Vehicle Standards AgencyUsed for: That a practical test is cancelled with no refund if you do not bring your UK driving licence, that a replacement can take up to 15 days, the option to rearrange the test if it will not arrive in time, and the passport-plus-paper-licence alternative
- 5.View or share your driving licence information OfficialDriver and Vehicle Licensing AgencyUsed for: That the service shows your driving record, vehicles you can drive and any penalty points, that signing in needs the driving licence number, National Insurance number and licence postcode, and that a check code for a hire company or employer is valid for 21 days
- 6.Replacing your driving licence if lost, stolen, defaced or destroyed Officialnidirect (Driver and Vehicle Agency)Used for: The Northern Ireland process — DVA rather than DVLA, the £30 fee, online or form DL1 from a Post Office, the 10 working day processing aim and six-week point at which to chase, and the conditions for driving before the replacement arrives including having held a NI or GB licence issued since 1 January 1976
Not a source — AI-assisted analysis on this page
- AI-assisted analysis — driving on a lost licence, and the identity risk — Two conclusions on this page are ours. First, that you may keep driving in Great Britain while a replacement is processed, reasoned from the card being evidence of an entitlement DVLA holds on its record rather than the entitlement itself. GOV.UK, DVSA and section 164 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 between them set out the fee, the timescales and the duty to produce a licence on demand, but none of them states whether you may drive in the meantime — only nidirect publishes the equivalent position, and only for Northern Ireland. Second, that a stolen licence should be handled as an identity risk: GOV.UK says to contact the police, but no cited source characterises the loss that way.
The application routes, the £20 and £30 fees, the one-week and three-week timescales, the phone-route bars at 56 and 90 days, forms D1, D2 and DL1, the cancelled-test rule and 15-day replacement estimate, the 21-day check code and the Northern Ireland process are lifted from the GOV.UK, DVSA and nidirect pages cited above, and the production duty and seven-day defence from section 164 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. Two conclusions are our reasoning and are labelled in both the text and the source list: that you may keep driving in Great Britain while a replacement is processed, and that a stolen licence is an identity risk as well as an administrative one. Fees, processing times and identity requirements change; confirm the current position with DVLA or DVA before relying on it.
Facts on this page are taken from the sources listed above — UK government departments, devolved administrations, regulators, statutory bodies and official statistical releases. Comparisons, judgements and "which option suits whom" conclusions are AI-assisted analysis written over those sources; they are marked in the text and listed as an AI-analysis entry in the sources, not attributed to any authority. Rates, thresholds, fees and processing times change, usually at the start of a tax year in April; figures are current as at the review date shown and should be confirmed with the responsible body before you rely on them. Much of what follows differs between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — where it does, this site says so.