British motorists spent nearly £19m replacing lost, damaged or stolen driving licences in 2017, according to new figures.
In total, 931,527 replacement licences were applied for in 2017, with each replacement licence costing £20.
The Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA) survey also found that young motorists are more likely to carry their licences with them, while Scottish drivers were found to be twice as likely to carry them than anywhere else in Britain. Welsh motorists were the most likely to leave them at home.
Dudley Ashford, drivers service manager at the DVLA, said: “While you don’t legally have to carry your licence with you while driving, you need to have a licence in case you need to prove you can drive.
“We recommend keeping your licence safe and secure at all time – perhaps storing it in one safe place along with other important documents.”
The DVLA has also said that most duplicate licences are now issued through its website, with the number of over 70s renewing their licences this way tripling since 2010.
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, commented: “It seems we are twice as good at losing driving licences as we are socks, pens and teaspoons.
“At least we no longer have to worry about looking after the paper counterpart to our licence, which was phased out in 2015.
“In that year when they were abolished, almost half of these licences were lost, too.”
