Local authorities, police forces and the NHS are being reminded by Licence Bureau that the DVLA Driver Licence Check (DLC) portal is now closed.

Any outstanding licence check credits will be honoured but then users must migrate their driver permissions and licence checking over to the DVLA portal via the DVLA online form, technically called the D906 Fair Processing Declaration.

Business fleets adopted the new protocol earlier this year, as a result of DVLA’s review of its General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) procedures.

According to Licence Bureau the time it takes to transfer to the new portal should not be underestimated and authorities, along with all relevant Government bodies, are being advised to start immediately to ensure their drivers are compliant to drive on company business.

This, claims Licence Bureau, is particularly relevant to the NHS where tens of thousands of grey fleet drivers use their own vehicles to carry out their vital healthcare roles every day.

“It makes sense for the DVLA to adopt a ‘one licence check portal fits all’ approach as part of its modernisation process, but it will be a shock for many authorities to change their procedures,” said Malcolm Maycock, managing director of Licence Bureau.

“We would suggest they start this process sooner rather than later as we know, from experience in early 2018 when fleets had to migrate their drivers over to the new portal in light of new GDPR regulations, that it takes time. All authorities, particularly police forces, will want to ensure they are 100% compliant.”