Motor Vehicles: Hire Services

(asked on 10th September 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has been made of the effect of connecting DVLA driver records with Department for Work and Pensions records on the ability of transgender people to hire vehicles.


Answered by
Andrew Jones Portrait
Andrew Jones
This question was answered on 18th September 2015

No specific assessment has been made. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s records are not connected to those of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). However, if drivers wish to access their own information and share it with car hire companies using the online "View Driving Licence" service, they must first verify their identity. To do this, the DVLA provides very limited information to DWP, including National Insurance number. These details are only shared with the explicit consent of the person using the service and gender information is not included. This is an instantaneous and fully automated process and there is no manual accessing of individual DWP records. The DVLA receives no information from DWP other than yes/no confirmation of the validity of the national insurance number provided by the driver or a notification if the driver is deceased.

Anyone who cannot use the online service to generate the code which allows them to share their driving licence information with third parties can telephone the DVLA who will generate a code for them. The individual driver can use this code to share their information with car hire companies if they choose to do so.

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