Home / Statutory documents / Drivers
Licence check consent and records
The driver’s permission and the record of checks you made on their entitlement.
This is general information for UK goods-vehicle operators. It is not legal advice. Use the official source on this page, and your operator licence conditions, before you rely on it.
What it is
Operators are expected to check that drivers hold the right entitlement and do not have disqualifications or endorsements that affect the job. DVLA will not hand over a driver’s record without the driver’s permission. The usual route is a check code the driver generates, or a historic mandate where you still have one. The check result, the date, and what you did about it are the records that show the system works.
Who holds it
The operator holds the check record and the evidence of consent or the check code used. The driver keeps their own licence. A check code is short-lived, so the stored result matters more than the code itself.
At a visit
A traffic commissioner or DVSA maintenance investigation can ask how often you check licences and what happened when a check showed a problem. A policy that says “we check annually” with no records will not stand up.