renewed license online using passport photo

I did mine recently as an age requirement. My old licence was an ancient paper one, so I was doubtful if I could do it, but it worked successfully.

AIUI, you must have the newer type of passport, where the photo page is nearer the front, rather than at the back.

Chris

But. The photo on the driving licence must be updated every ten years, his old passport is almost ten years old, so even if renewal works now, he should be asked to renew his picture almost immediately.

If I remember correctly there is a tick box to say that the photo is still a likeness.

Most people don't change much in appearance past middle age.

Chris

Yet it is a legal requirement that the picture is renewed every ten years, the date of expiry of the picture is shown on the licence at 4b on the front.

I think it's a bit more complicated than that.

What I think is the relevant legislation was inserted in s.99 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 in 1998:

"Where, in accordance with the preceding provisions of this section, a licence in the form of a photocard remains in force for a period of more than ten years, the holder of the licence must surrender it and its counterpart to the Secretary of State not later than the end of the period of ten years beginning with?

(a)the date shown on the licence as the date of its issue, or

(b)if the licence was granted by way of renewal or replacement of a licence bearing the same photograph, the date shown on the earliest licence bearing that photograph as the date of issue of that licence"

So yes, if you have a photocard licence with a photo which was first used on an earlier photocard licence you have to renew the licence after

10 years from the issue of that earlier licence - before the photocard is 10 years old.

But no, if the passport photo they use for your photocard hasn't be used before for a photocard licence you can keep that photocard for 10 years, even though the passport photo may by then be >10 years old.

I think :)

I wonder if these might be EU regs?

The bulk of the law on driving licences is dictated by EU Directives (format, entries, categories of entitlement, etc) but I don't know if they also cover the age of the photo on the licence.

For similar reasons, when I renewed my licence for the 4th time aged 82, my photo was only 9 years old, but I renewed the photo at the same time to avoid changing it one year later.

My photo is the back of my passport abeit one with the biometric data in a chip/loop. I changed my paper licence for a photo licence using the previously provided passport information. This was within a few years of obtaining the passport