How to get your driving licence

You can apply from 15 years and 9 months old, and drive a car on the road from your 17th birthday.

Apply on GOV.UK. You will need an identity document, addresses for the last three years and your National Insurance number if you know it.

You must be able to read a number plate from 20 metres — glasses or contact lenses are fine.

Learn with a DVSA-approved instructor in a dual-controlled car. You can also practise privately with someone over 21 who has held a full licence for three years or more.

DVSA figures suggest around 45 hours of professional tuition plus 22 hours of private practice on average, though the range is genuinely wide.

Decide early whether you want manual or automatic. A manual licence lets you drive both; automatic is usually quicker to learn.

Two parts in one sitting. First 50 multiple-choice questions in 57 minutes, needing 43 correct. Then hazard perception: 14 clips containing 15 developing hazards, scored out of 75, needing 44.

You must pass both parts. A strong score in one will not rescue a fail in the other.

Your theory pass certificate is valid for two years. If you do not pass your practical in that window, you have to take the theory again — which catches a lot of people out.

You book this yourself on GOV.UK. Since 12 May 2026, only the learner named on the licence may book, change or cancel — nobody can do it for you, including your instructor.

The test lasts about 40 minutes: general driving, one reversing manoeuvre, possibly an emergency stop, and 20 minutes of independent driving.

You can get up to 15 driving faults and still pass. Sixteen or more is a fail, as is any single serious or dangerous fault.

A six-hour course covering motorways, dual carriageways, night driving, all weather, and rural and town roads — the situations most new drivers have barely touched.

Some insurers offer a discount for it, though not all, so check before you book if that is your main reason.

Your photocard licence lasts 10 years and must then be renewed. The DVLA will write to you.

For the first two years after passing, six penalty points revokes your licence and you go back to provisional — a lower threshold than for established drivers.