Bloody DVLA

[AllPastYears]

So I got a new car registration form from the DVLA - saying that a bunch had been stolen and they were issuing new ones. And it was addressed to Mrs X. I have never been Mrs X in my life . I was Miss Years when I was little, then grew up and changed to Ms, got married and stayed Ms Years, then became Dr Years.

Now looking at my old form that also says my car belongs to Mrs X strange as she has never existed and I'm guessing that the car salesman filled it in and in the hassle of buying a new car I didn't notice. I wouldn't have minded if he'd put Ms, but Mrs? He made that up, that is not me!

So, I decided to send it back in and register my car as belonging to Dr Years, and on the Title part there is a 3-way tickbox choice. Yes, you guessed it. Mr/Mrs/Miss . Below that there is a separate box to write other titles, e.g. Reverend, Ms (even more ). So being the clever PhD-type person that I am, I put a big black line through the Mr/Mrs/Miss tickboxes, then wrote in the box below, Dr. Then I realised that the computer would probably recognise my blackline as a tick for Mrs and I'd be back to square one. Tippexed the line out. Arrgh, not so clever after all. .

Would have been better writing a letter of complaint, wouldn't I? But really, in the 21st century?

I think if you've put a line through them all it will probably not pick Mrs (is there somewhere else where you enter gender? Is gender relevant when registering a car?) but the Tippex will probably cause the form to be rejected.

The absence of Ms is deeply odd, and ties in with a conspiracy theory I have that DVLA wants to know the marital status of women; when a friend of mine wanted to renew her driving licence and change her title to Mrs despite still using her maiden name, the Post Office insisted on her sending her original marriage certificate in - to prove the use of a title? WTF?!

Maybe they'll ask for my PhD certificate . It was a diagonal line, so it was at the edge of the Mr/Miss boxes and in the middle of the Mrs box

Hmm, maybe I should check what's on my driving licence...

It should be equally easy to make any of the choices. No-one should have to use a title they are not happy with.

did we ever get to the bottom of why UK driving licences only show titles for women, not men?

tribpot that is insane. So you can be a Miss, Dr or Mr without proof but have to send in a marriage certificate to PROVE you are a Mrs? WTF indeed!

I have to renew my licence this year too. I'm a Miss, a la Miss Elizabeth Taylor. I was Ms in my 20's but I don't like the phonetics of it. I feel like I can't say it properly. So I reverted to Miss - though most people call me Mrs if using a title. They just assume. It's all nonsense. I would prefer to be title less - simply Hip Hopotomus.

Alameda there is nothing in the description of the driving licence that says Title is going to be displayed but mine, which is almost brand new, does. It implies my first name is 'Ms'.

Some info on an FOI request here - the blogger has mistyped her original request in this follow-up, she did specify 'female' in the original.