· Written and maintained by Nonimo
To redact a driving licence is to black out, on the copy, everything the recipient has no use for: the date and place of birth, the signature, the address and very often the driver number, which quietly repeats your birth date. Your name, photo, expiry date and categories still prove you can drive.
The tool above reads your UK photocard licence in your browser and puts a chip on each field. Nothing is covered until you tap a chip; tap again to show the field. Your licence never leaves your device.
If you only want to mark who the copy is for, without covering anything, the page on watermarking a copy of your driving licence does exactly that, and the same approach works for a watermarked passport copy. If it is your passport that needs covering, the passport redaction guide takes the data page field by field, down to the two code lines at the bottom.
How to redact a driving licence
1. Drop in the licence
Use a photo or a scan: JPG, PNG, WEBP, PDF or iPhone HEIC. On a phone the tool opens the camera or your photos. It recognises the DVLA card and Northern Ireland’s DVA card; rotate the image or drag the corners to crop and straighten it if needed.
2. Tap the fields to redact
Every field starts visible. Tap the chips you need: Licence number, Date of birth, Place of birth, Issue date, Signature, Address. For anything without a chip, drag across it to draw a box by hand; tap a box to remove it.
3. Download the redacted copy
PNG, JPG or PDF, with the boxes burned into the pixels. The original photo’s EXIF data and GPS position stay behind. A black rectangle drawn over a PDF in an editor is another matter, and our guide to redacting a PDF before AI sees it explains why the text underneath often survives. The tool does one side at a time; for the back, drop in a second photo.
What to redact on a UK driving licence, field by field
The photocard numbers its fields the EU way, and DVLA’s leaflet INS57P, which arrives with every licence, explains what each one holds. Here is the front, with each field’s chip.
| No. | Field | Chip in the tool | In a copy you send |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 and 2 | Surname and first names | Name | Keep |
| 3 | Date and place of birth | Date of birth, Place of birth | Redact unless asked |
| 4a | Issue date | Issue date | Redact |
| 4b | Expiry date | Expiry date | Keep: shows the card is current |
| 4c | Issuing authority (DVLA) | none | Leave: it names the issuer, not you |
| 5 | Driver number | Licence number | Keep only if they will record it |
| 7 | Signature | Signature | Redact |
| 8 | Permanent address | Address | Keep only as proof of address |
| 9 | Vehicle categories | none | Keep: it is why they ask |
Field labels from DVLA, INS57P; the last column is our suggestion. The Photo chip covers your picture, and the smaller second image where the card prints one, in a single tap.
Field 5, the driver number: the field people forget
INS57P sets out how the 16-character driver number is built: five letters of your surname, six digits holding your date of birth, with 5 added to the first month digit for women, your first two initials, then check digits. The leaflet’s own example, MORGA 657054 SM 9IJ, belongs to a woman born on 5 July 1964 with the initials S and M.
So a copy with field 3 redacted and field 5 visible still tells the reader when you were born. Show it only to someone who will write it down. It sits alongside NI and NHS numbers in our list of personal data to remove before AI. If a form asks for both, see how to redact a National Insurance number as well.
The back: columns 9 to 12 and the card identifier
On the back, column 9 lists the categories, 10 and 11 the dates each one is valid from and to, and 12 the information codes, with the unique card identifier below. The Issue date and Expiry date chips cover the dates in columns 10 and 11, the Card number chip covers the identifier, and column 12 has no chip: drag a box over it with Redact by hand. GOV.UK’s list of driving licence codes shows why column 12 matters: 01 eyesight correction, 02 a hearing or communication aid, 78 automatic cars only, and others for adapted controls. Health information has extra protection in UK law, as our guide to special category data explains. Send the back only when someone asks for it.
What the recipient really needs to see
The ICO’s guidance on data minimisation sets the principle: an organisation should identify the minimum personal data it needs for its purpose, and hold no more. For a licence it is small: an employer wants your name, photo, expiry date and categories; a hire broker or an insurer may also record the driver number; as proof of address, the address stays and the birth details go.
An employer or hire company checking entitlement and points can skip the photo: GOV.UK’s View or share your driving licence information service creates a check code, valid for 21 days, that they use with the last eight characters of your driver number. Before an AI reads the licence, redact every field. The chatbot keeps the uploaded image too, as our guide to what four AI tools keep of a photo explains. For the text your team pastes into ChatGPT at work, Nonimo redacts names, NI numbers and other personal details on the computer before they reach the AI.
Common questions
What should I redact on a copy of my UK driving licence?
Usually the date and place of birth, the issue date, the signature and the address. Keep your name, photo, expiry date and vehicle categories visible, since those answer what most people asking for a copy want to know. Redact the driver number too unless the recipient will record it, as an insurer or a hire company might.
What does my driver number reveal?
More than it looks. DVLA's leaflet INS57P explains that it opens with five letters of your surname, then holds your full date of birth, with 5 added to the first month digit for women, then your first two initials. Redacting the birth date on the card achieves little if the number next to it stays visible.
Should I redact my driver number?
It depends who is asking. Insurers often ask for the number when they quote or set up a policy, and a hire company may write it on the agreement. An employer checking entitlement through GOV.UK only needs its last eight characters, typed with a check code. For anyone else, tap the Licence number chip and send the copy without it.
What do the codes on the back of my licence say about me?
Column 12 on the back holds information codes, and GOV.UK's list explains them: 01 means eyesight correction, 02 a hearing or communication aid, 78 automatic cars only, and others describe adapted controls. Some of that is health information. Send the back only when asked, and if the recipient has no use for the codes, use Redact by hand to drag a box over them.
Is it better to blur or black out a driving licence?
Black out. A light blur can leave digits guessable on a sharp photo, and a rectangle drawn in a PDF editor often leaves the text underneath. The tool puts solid black boxes into the pixels of the image you download, so on the finished copy there is nothing under the redacted area to recover.
Is my licence uploaded anywhere to redact it?
No. The photo is read and redacted in your own browser and never leaves your device. The file you download, as PNG, JPG or PDF, is a new image with the boxes burned in and without the original's metadata, such as the GPS position, the camera details or the phone model.
Can I redact my driving licence on my phone?
Yes. Open this page on your phone and the tool can take the picture with the camera or pick it from your photos, HEIC from an iPhone included. Tap the chips to redact, drag a finger over anything else, and download the copy to the same phone. There is nothing to install and the service is free.
Can I show my driving licence to ChatGPT or another AI safely?
Show it a copy with nothing left that points to you. In the tool, tap every chip, name, Licence number, photo and dates included, and drag a box over anything else personal. The AI still sees the layout, the numbered fields and the categories, which is enough to explain a field, a code or a form, without keeping your details.