The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is a member of EUCARIS (the European Car and Driving Licence Information System) which electronically links the databases of participating European registration authorities. The EUCARIS treaty permits the checking of information when a driving licence is produced for exchange or a vehicle registration document is applied for.
Driving licence information is currently exchanged only between Great Britain, Germany, Latvia, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and is restricted to the following information:
Full name of licence holder
Date of birth
Place of birth
Categories of vehicle the holder is permitted to drive
The validity period and date of issue
Restrictions/signals (e.g. stolen, lost, withdrawn, duplicate, invalid etc.).
Vehicle data can be exchanged with Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden. Information exchanged is restricted to Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), registration mark, make, model, date of first registration (if applicable), colour, fuel type and whether there are any restrictions or signals (e.g. stolen, vehicle scrapped or documents/plates stolen or missing).
Information is exchanged only with registration authorities of countries outside the EU where they have adequate data protection laws. This is conducted on a case-by-case basis. There has not been any recent policy changes.