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About this tool
See whether the UK expects an international driving permit with your licence, and how the 12-month visitor and resident windows actually work.
This checker settles whether the UK expects an International Driving Permit alongside your national licence - for almost every visitor, it does not - and then dates the windows that actually matter. A visitor may drive any small vehicle shown on a full, valid licence from any country for 12 months from the day they last entered Great Britain, under the framework of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Motor Vehicles (International Circulation) Order 1975. What changes with your country is what happens after those 12 months once you are resident: an EU or EEA licence runs to age 70, a designated-country licence can be exchanged without a test within five years, and everything else means a provisional licence and both driving tests.
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States plainly that British law asks for no permit from a visitor, and separates that from what a hire desk may want.
Returns the 12-month driving window and, for designated countries, the five-year exchange deadline.
Reminds you the drink-drive limit drops from 80 to 50 mg per 100 ml the moment you cross into Scotland.
No. A visitor may drive any type of small vehicle listed on their full, valid driving licence - issued anywhere in the world - for 12 months from the date they last entered Great Britain, and nothing in British law requires an International Driving Permit alongside it. The only practical reason to carry one is a rental company that cannot read a licence in a non-Latin script and asks for a translation as a condition of the booking.
Twelve months from when you last entered Great Britain, or from when you became resident. After that it depends on the licence: an EU or EEA licence can be used until you turn 70, a licence from a designated country such as Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea, Singapore or Switzerland can be exchanged for a GB licence without a test within five years of becoming resident, and any other licence means applying for a provisional GB licence and passing both the theory and practical tests.
It is not the same everywhere. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the limit is 80 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, or 35 microgrammes per 100 millilitres of breath. Scotland lowered its limit in December 2014 to 50 milligrammes per 100 millilitres of blood, or 22 microgrammes of breath, so the limit changes under you at the border.
Not without taking the tests. The United States is not on the DVLA's designated-country list, so a US licence holder who becomes resident may drive on it for 12 months and then has to apply for a provisional GB licence and pass the theory test and the practical driving test. Book early - test slots are often weeks out, and the 12 months passes quickly. This is general information rather than legal advice; check the current designated-country list with the DVLA.