How can someone check your driving licence is clean?

[PuzzledObserver]

This is just curiosity.

I’m starting as a volunteer driver for a community car scheme so of course there are loads of checks, I had to show my driving licence, insurance details etc, do a DBS and they asked if my driving licence was clean - which it is.

I was talking to the coordinator today as she was giving me my first ‘job’ and she said “everything checks out, your driving licence is clean.”

So I just wondered if they would be able to check that, given that there are no paper counterparts any more? I had a look on the DVSA web site and if it says that if you want to check someone’s driving licence you need to ask them to generate a check code and give it to you. They didn’t ask me to do that.

So I wondered whether certain organisations are authorised to check you out via a separate system? This is a charity which runs community transport, so all official and above board.

I’m interested to know the answer too

Do they have your national insurance number? They use it to generate the code

They shouldn’t but, assuming it hasn’t changed from a couple of years ago, they can easily generate a driver check code themselves from ID you’ve given them. They just need NI number, licence number and postcode.

Oh, that will be it - I had to provide my NI number for the DBS check. That will be it.

Thanks, all.

Now I come to think of it - although they asked who my insurer was and the renewal date, they didn’t ask to see evidence. But you can run an online check on any car which will confirm whether it it taxed and MOT’d, and you can’t insure a car which doesn’t have a valid MOT. Plus there’s a system to check whether a vehicle is insured - free for a one-off for your own car, but there are schemes for other relevant parties.

I bet they put the insurance, MOT and tax dates on their system and then check them when they’re due. It’s a big thing to be responsible for transporting a vulnerable person in your own car, so it’s good that they take this seriously.

They can only check a car is insured though, not who holds or is named on the policy, or they type of insurance.

you can’t insure a car which doesn’t have a valid MOT.

You can, there’s no checks etc

You can share your driving licence information here but it's only valid for 21 days. In the early days of switching over to photo licences it was sometimes required by car hire companies.

@Shade17

you can’t insure a car which doesn’t have a valid MOT.

You can, there’s no checks etc

Oh, I mean you can’t tax a car with no MOT.

You can tax a car any any point whilst the MOT is still valid.

So for example your MOT is valid from 1st Jan - 31st Dec, so your MOT is due 1st Jan again. You could tax your car 31st Dec.

In UK cars, van, motorcycles that are over 40 years, do not need an MOT & you don't need to pay tax
You do need insurance
You can have an MOT if you wish or service the vehicle yourself if you are a mechanic