Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the impact of removing digitised signatures from UK passports issued after January 2017 on the online renewal process for DVLA photocard licences.

The impact of His Majesty’s Passport Office no longer collecting digital signatures for passports on driving licence applications has been minimal. Around 70 per cent of driving licence renewal applications are made online.

The DVLA also has an online service which allows customers applying for a first provisional driving licence to upload their own digital photograph and signature. Customers using the DVLA’s renew a photocard licence service can also upload a new signature or use an existing one.

The DVLA is focused on delivering further improvements to enable even more customers to use its online services. The exact order of implementing service improvements will be based on where the DVLA can add the most value to customers.