Planning begins for chipped driving licences

The DVLA has started preparing for the possible production of driving licences with microchips on them.

European law is currently being updated to allow member states to add chips to driving licences. At the same time, the DVLA is upgrading its driving licence card production facility to address the increasing threat to the driving licence from counterfeiters.

The agency has recently signed a deal for the supply of hardware and software to produce a more secure, laser engraved polycarbonate driving licence.

And the contract award notice for the deal, issued last month, states: "A likely future development is the inclusion of the chip."

The DVLA told silicon.com in a statement: "There is a requirement for the equipment to be flexible enough in order to have the capability to cater for future operational and security requirements and volumes."

At the moment EU members are prohibited from adding chips to licences. But EC proposals for a third directive on driving licences, currently under negotiation, include the option for member states to include a microchip.

The DVLA told silicon.com in a statement: "A decision on whether the UK would want to include a microchip on the driving licence has not yet been taken. Any such decision would require ministerial approval beforehand."

The DVLA said it does not know when the new directive will be adopted - and even once it is, governments have six years to implement it.

But the DVLA's 2005-06 Business Plan notes: "The possible inclusion of a microchip on the licences, as proposed in the draft Third EU Directive on driving licences, may provide an opportunity for DVLA to improve further the security of the licence photocard."

It adds: "We are procuring new card production equipment with the capability of delivering smartcard licences that will also address the physical security of our card production."