DVLA is an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport, which is a "public authority" to which the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("the FOI Act") applies. The FOI Act aims to make information held by public authorities more accessible to the public and allows individuals and companies to request a wide variety of material. This section summarises DVLA's FOI request handling procedures. It aims to satisfy the requirements of the Code of Practice referred to below.
Detailed information about the provisions of the FOI Act can be found at Department for Constitutional Affairs - Understanding the Act.
The Code of Practice on the discharge of public authorities' functions under the Act can be found at Department for Constitutional Affairs - Code of Practice.
On receipt of a request for information the DVLA must:
DVLA is not required to comply with these obligations where one or more exemptions apply.
The FOIA replaces the non statutory Code of Practice on access to government information.
The FOIA is enforced by the Information Commissioner.
Any individual or company may make a request. Applicants do not need to be UK citizens or living in the UK to make a request.
DVLA does not need to know why you are making the request or what you intend to do with the information. We will not impose conditions on the use or further disclosure of information provided although information disclosed may be subject to copyright protection.
Before making a request you should check what information is already available from:-
Before making a request you should check our publication scheme to see if the information you want is already available. View Publication Scheme.
You may request any information held by or on behalf of DVLA and recorded in any form. This includes paper records (including hand written notes), information held on computers, other electronically held information (audio and video recordings), plans, maps, and photographs.
You are entitled to the information contained in documents, not to the documents themselves. However, where appropriate and convenient we may choose to provide a copy of the document rather than extracting the information from it.
If you request is wholly or partly for "environmental information" we are required to treat that part of your request as a request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 ("the EIRs").
Important Note - Applications for the release of personal data are covered by the Data Protection Act 1998. If you are requesting information about yourself (Data Subject Access Request) you should click requesting information about yourself.
Regulations allow the Agency to release information to applicants who can demonstrate “reasonable cause” for their request. If you are requesting information about another motorist you should click requesting information about another motorist for information on how to apply.
