Legal obligations

Legal obligations

Driver obligations

Before you drive a vehicle or ride a motorcycle, you must:

  • Hold the right driving licence
  • Be of the minimum age to drive or ride
  • Meet the legal eyesight standards

In addition to the above, a learner driver must:

  • Be supervised by a qualified driver when driving a vehicle (not applicable to motorcycles)
  • Display L plates

Vehicle obligations

Before you take a vehicle on the road it must:

  • Be registered in the UK
  • Have valid vehicle tax
  • Have a current test certificate (if required)

You must have the minimum of third party insurance to cover your use of the vehicle.

Notification obligations

You must tell the DVLA in Swansea if you:

  • Change your address and/or name
  • Make any alterations to your vehicle
  • Sell your vehicle
  • Develop or have a medical condition, if you suddenly require glasses, or if your eyesight further deteriorates (in Northern Ireland use the DVA local office in this instance)

Larger vehicles or buses obligations

There are higher conduct, eyesight and medical standards for driving larger vehicles. More information on medical standards can be found on the GOV.UK or the nidirect website. You must also tell the DVLA or DVA if you have driving-related convictions. If you have a passenger-carrying vehicle, you must also tell DVLA or DVA if you have any non-driving convictions.

Copyright © 2024 Epoq Group Ltd. All trademarks acknowledged, all rights reserved

This website is operated by Epoq Legal Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 3707955, whose registered office is at 2 Imperial Place, Maxwell Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, WD6 1JN. Epoq Legal Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA number 645296).

Our use of cookies

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We would also like to set some optional cookies. We won't set these optional cookies unless you enable them. Please choose whether this site may use optional cookies by selecting 'On' or 'Off' for each category below. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Cookie notice.

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Functionality cookies

We'd like to set cookies to provide you with a better customer experience. For more information on these cookies, please see our cookie notice.