DVLA Driver Licence Checks: Consent, Frequency and Record Keeping Explained

Can an employer check a driver's licence?

The one-off service is Check someone’s driving licence (opens in a new tab). You need the last 8 characters of the driving licence number and a check code from the driver. The code must be used within 21 days, and it can be used only once. Another check needs another code. The driver creates that code on View or share your driving licence (opens in a new tab), where the same 21-day limit is stated. The check page also offers a postal form, D888/1, completed by the enquirer and the driver.

That share-code screen is the right tool for a hire company or a single look. It is a poor system for a fleet that must check the same drivers again next quarter. Each code is spent after one use. Access to Driver Data is the repeat route: the company asks DVLA, under a declaration the driver has signed, for the record it needs for the purpose written on the form.

FleetPro does not run the share-code screen. A DVLA check in the product uses Access to Driver Data and will not run until a signed D906/ADD consent is on the driver. A manual row, where you type a result you already obtained, does not call DVLA at all.

What information does a DVLA licence check show?

The D906/ADD declaration tells the driver what DVLA may disclose to the companies named on the form: personal details, driving entitlements and any restriction codes, valid endorsements and disqualifications, photo images in some circumstances, and Certificate of Professional Competence and digital tachograph card details where appropriate.

The report FleetPro stores from that enquiry is narrower than the whole declaration. It keeps the driving status, the valid-from and valid-to dates, the categories the driver holds and any provisional categories, restriction codes, endorsements with offence codes and points, and disqualification detail when DVLA returns it. The licence number on that report is masked, with only the last characters left readable. CPC and tachograph dates are included only when the consent asked for them. The declaration mentions photo images in some circumstances. The FleetPro report does not display a photograph.

A result is treated as valid when the licence has a future expiry and the status is not disqualified, revoked or surrendered. A licence that expires within 30 days is still valid, and is marked as an advisory so the date is not missed. A manual check does not receive any of this from DVLA. It stores the pass, advisory or fail you enter, the next date you choose, and an evidence file if you attach one.

Do you need driver consent?

Yes. The check-code service will not run without a code the driver has created, and the GOV.UK pages state that obtaining someone else’s personal information without their permission is a criminal offence. Access to Driver Data rests on the D906/ADD fair processing declaration: the driver confirms they understand the named company will ask DVLA for the driver record, for the purpose set out on the form, as and when the company requires it.

In FleetPro that declaration is the consent. You can send it to the driver app for an electronic signature, or print it, have it signed, and upload the paper copy. The driver row then shows a valid-until date. Tick CPC or tachograph information only when the enquiry should include them, and enter the reason for the enquiry. A driver without an app login cannot receive the form in the app. Use the paper copy for that person.

No signed consent means no DVLA check. The check stays unavailable until the consent is valid. A new consent sent with “replace existing” withdraws the previous one. A manual result can still be saved without calling DVLA. That manual row does not become permission for a later DVLA enquiry.

How long does consent last?

The declaration the driver signs says it will expire when they stop driving in connection with the company or, in any case, three years from the date of the signature. That is the period on the form. It is not a retention period for the check result, and it is not the 21-day life of a share code.

FleetPro stores a valid-until date three years from the date signed, whether the driver signed in the app or on paper. Until that date, and while the consent is still signed rather than withdrawn, a DVLA check can run. The product does not itself detect the day someone stops driving for you. If the relationship has ended, the declaration says the driver has the right for their information not to be requested. Replacing the consent withdraws the earlier form. An expired date blocks the next DVLA enquiry until a new declaration is signed.

How often should checks be completed?

The goods vehicle operator licensing guide (opens in a new tab) expects regular checks on drivers’ licences, usually every 3 months. The same interval is the official guidance for PSV drivers. It is guidance on a proper system, not a statute that makes an annual check a criminal offence by itself. What changes between goods and passenger work is the entitlement you confirm, not the gap. How often to check an HGV or PSV driving licence sets that out, including earned recognition and what to do when the risk is higher.

When scheduled checks are switched on, FleetPro uses one rule for every driver: every 3 months at 0–5 penalty points, and every month at 6 or more. That monthly step is the product’s rule, aligned with the earned-recognition marker. It is not a frequency you set per person, and it is not a separate law. The switch starts off. Nobody is checked overnight without a signed consent.

What licence check records should be retained?

The operator licensing guides do not say “keep the licence-check printout for 15 months”, or for any other fixed number of months. Fifteen months belongs to vehicle maintenance and defect records. What an auditor can usefully see is the result: who was checked, when, what the licence showed, and what you did if it was wrong. What records a transport manager should keep leaves that row without a made-up month count. The statutory notes are licence-check records and the driving licence.

FleetPro’s own handling of a DVLA result is a separate clock. The public information handling procedure keeps the DVLA licence-check record for 12 months from the check date, then a scheduled purge deletes checks older than that. That 12 months is the product rule for the copy held in FleetPro. It is not a statutory filing period for a printout you downloaded, and it is not the three-year life of the declaration. A report you download or print is yours to look after. The procedure is on the information handling procedure.

Keep the consent that allowed the enquiry, as well as the result. A check history with no declaration, or a declaration with no result, does not show the chain. Share-code checks done outside the product are the same kind of record if you rely on them: the date, the code’s result, and what you did.

What happens when points increase?

A rise means the latest check has a strictly higher points total than the previous check for that driver. The first check has nothing to compare, so it is not an increase. An equal total is not an increase. A lower total is not an increase. Points can change between checks. A clear result on Monday does not freeze the licence until the next quarter.

When a DVLA check in FleetPro shows that rise, staff who have opted in to licence-check emails, and who have an email address, are emailed. Staff in the same admin and transport-manager roles who have no email address get a one-off in-app notice instead. People who opted out of those emails are not emailed. The notice is sent once for that check. A failed result is a separate email to the same opted-in people: disqualified, revoked, surrendered, or otherwise not valid. A points rise on a still-valid licence does not by itself send the failure email, and a failure email is not sent for every change in points.

The check does not decide whether that driver works tomorrow. It records the new total and, where scheduled checks are on, the next due date moves to monthly once the total is 6 or more. What you do with the driver, the vehicle and the insurer is the transport manager’s decision. The frequency guide covers why 6 points is the marker used here.

Manual vs automated DVLA checks

There are three different actions, and only two of them talk to DVLA. A manual check stores a result you already have. It does not call DVLA, it does not use a check credit, and you can edit it later. An on-demand DVLA check calls Access to Driver Data for one driver who has valid consent, and it counts toward the allowance. A scheduled check does the same call overnight for due drivers who have consent. Those rows are marked as scheduled. The scheduled switch starts off.

• Share code: the driver creates it, you use it once within 21 days, outside FleetPro.
• Manual row: you enter pass, advisory or fail, a next date, and an optional evidence file.
• DVLA check: needs a signed D906/ADD, returns the report, and uses allowance or a credit.
• Scheduled DVLA check: the same enquiry, overnight, every 3 months, or every month at 6 or more points.

A driver who has never been checked is picked up by the overnight run once they have valid consent and the switch is on. The switch does not create permission. Leave it off if you only want to run a check when you choose. Scheduled checks still count toward the allowance.

Data protection and licence information

The declaration is the fair processing notice for this enquiry. It names the company, the purpose, and the categories DVLA may disclose. Ask only for what that purpose needs. CPC and tachograph details are separate ticks. A vehicle-registration lookup is a different DVLA service and is not this check.

FleetPro keeps the raw DVLA response off the customer report. Users in the organisation see the report: status, dates, categories, points, endorsements and, when requested, CPC and tachograph dates, with the licence number masked. The information handling procedure limits that report to authenticated users in the driver’s organisation, keeps the DVLA record for 12 months from the check date, and then deletes it. A copy you download or print is the organisation’s to handle. Do not treat the 12-month product deletion as a rule that the licensing guides imposed on every paper file.

The procedure, including what must not be copied out to personal storage or public material, is the information handling procedure.

FleetPro licence checking

Licence checks are a separate module. They are included on Complete, available with Core and Compliance, or taken on their own as FleetPro Licence. They are not part of Checks. A platform switch can turn the module off. A trial may limit how many DVLA checks run. Driver expiry dates can still sit on a fleet package when no DVLA enquiry has been run.

Complete includes one licence check per driver every 3 months. Further checks are pay as you go, including the monthly re-check when points are 6 or more. On Core, Compliance and FleetPro Licence, each completed DVLA check is pay as you go. A manual row does not use that allowance. Current amounts are on pricing and DVLA driver licence checks. The wider compliance set is on HGV compliance.

Licence check workflow

1. 1Request consentSend the D906/ADD to the driver app, or print it. Tick CPC or tachograph only if the enquiry needs them.
2. 2Driver signsThe row shows a valid-until date, three years from the signature. No signature means no DVLA check.
3. 3Run or scheduleRun one DVLA check, or turn scheduled checks on. A manual result does not call DVLA.
4. 4Read the reportStatus, categories, points, endorsements and disqualification. CPC and tachograph only if requested.
5. 5Act on the resultA failed result emails opted-in staff. A higher points total emails them too, or leaves an in-app notice if they have no email address.
6. 6Keep the historyFleetPro keeps the DVLA row for 12 months from the check date, then deletes it. The declaration is a separate three-year record.

Employer checklist

Questions employers ask

Can an employer check a driving licence without asking the driver?

No. The GOV.UK check service needs a code the driver creates, or a postal form the driver completes. A DVLA enquiry in FleetPro needs a signed D906/ADD. The check pages state that obtaining someone else’s personal information without permission is a criminal offence.

How long does a check code last?

21 days, and it can be used only once. You also need the last 8 characters of the driving licence number. Another look needs another code. That limit is on the check service and on the page where the driver creates the code.

How long does a D906 declaration last?

The declaration expires when the driver stops driving for the company or, in any case, three years from the signature. FleetPro stores that three-year date for an app signature and for a paper signature. A replacement consent withdraws the previous one.

How often should the check be done?

Usually every 3 months, as the licensing guides put it. The detail, including HGV and PSV entitlement and the 6-point marker, is in how often to check an HGV or PSV driving licence.

Is every licence record kept for 15 months?

No. The licensing guides do not give the licence-check printout a month count. FleetPro deletes its DVLA check record 12 months after the check date. That is the product rule, not the 15-month maintenance duty and not the three-year declaration.

Does a rise in points email everyone?

No. It emails staff who opted in to licence-check emails. Staff in those roles with no email address get an in-app notice. The first check, an unchanged total and a lower total do not send it. A failed result has its own email to the same opted-in people.

You can open a trial and look at licence checks where the package includes them. No card is taken at the start. When the trial ends, features lock until you speak with us. Start at organisation setup. Package differences are on pricing.