Drivers across the UK are being urged to check their licences today after the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) warned that more than 900,000 people are at risk of a whopping £1000 fine.
Motorists should check that their licences are in date after a DVLA investigation revealed that almost a million have expired and not been renewed - meaning that there’s a whole lot of drivers out there unwittingly putting themselves at risk.
Yours might even have expired recently without you realising - according to figures obtained by the PA news agency following a Freedom of Information request, 926,000 people had licenses that became out of date on September 3.
Photocard drivers licences need to be renewed every 10 years in order to make sure that the photo is a true likeness of the driver.
If drivers fail to renew their licence, they risk a fine of up to £1,000 as they’re breaking the law.
The DVLA will usually send you a letter to remind you if your licence is about to expire - but if you’ve moved address and forgotten to update them, you might’ve missed yours and could in fact have an expired licence.
Don’t worry if you’re now rushing to renew yours, if you’re late you won’t be penalised and you can continue hitting the road with an expired licence as long as you’ve sent in a renewal application.
Here’s how to renew your UK driving licence
The DVLA encourages customers to use gov.uk as the quickest and cheapest way to renew their licence - it costs £14 and is usually processed within five days.
If you don’t want to do it online, postal licence renewals will set you back £17, while the Post Office charges a £21.50 fee.