Guaranteed acceptance or your money backDispatched the same working dayAccepted by HM Passport Office, DVLA & HMRC
Drafted by paralegals since 2000
Proof for DVLA
An unenrolled Deed Poll is accepted: DVLA’s list simply says “a deed poll”. Send the original, signed and dated, never a photocopy, a certified copy or a laminated one. With a Deed Poll, DVLA also wants one document in your new name, or the number of a UK passport that shows it. Your originals come back to you separately, by second class post.
GOV.UK’s page on the documents DVLA needs names a deed poll as proof of a new name and says nothing about enrolling it, and GOV.UK’s deed poll guide confirms that anyone aged 16 or over can make an unenrolled one. Ours are unenrolled, DVLA accepts them, and if a Deed Poll we drafted is not accepted you get your money back.
GOV.UK asks for at least one of these, plus the licence or identity document that still shows your old name. Only the first two need a second document in your new name.
| Proof | When it works | Send with it |
|---|---|---|
| A Deed Poll Ours | Any change: first, middle or last names, spelling, or a whole new name | One document in your new name, or a UK passport number |
| A statutory declaration | Any change, made before a solicitor, a magistrate or a commissioner of oaths | One document in your new name, or a UK passport number |
| Marriage or civil partnership certificate | When you have changed your surname | Nothing more. After marriage |
| Divorce or dissolution papers | The decree nisi or absolute, or the conditional or final order | Your birth or adoption certificate, or UK naturalisation certificate. After divorce |
| Your 9-digit passport number | After a marriage or divorce, once the GB passport shows the new name | Nothing: write it on the form and keep the passport |
From GOV.UK’s identity documents needed for a driving licence application, checked October 2026. Certificates must be signed and dated, and DVLA wants originals only.
To DVLA, Swansea, SA99 1BN. Free for a new name, or £17 with a new photo. Pay the right postage: your originals are inside.
Want a list made for your own case, a lorry licence or Northern Ireland included? The Deed Polls Online handbook, our sister site, has a DVLA checker that builds one.
No. DVLA wants the original. Its identity documents guidance rules out photocopies, laminated certificates and certified copies, and it names copies certified by the Post Office’s document certification service among them. GOV.UK’s name change page asks for original documents confirming your new name.
You do get it back. DVLA returns identity documents by second class post, apart from the new licence, and to follow them home GOV.UK suggests enclosing a stamped Special Delivery or Signed For envelope addressed to yourself. How long DVLA takes, and when to chase.
Certified copies still earn their place: many organisations accept one, so the rest of your list keeps moving while the original is in Swansea. Certified copies, from £6 for 2, up to £25 for 20.
DVLA asks for one, alongside a Deed Poll or a statutory declaration, to show you now use the name. It must still be valid, issued after your Deed Poll, and issued after your current licence too.
Issued in the last 12 months
Or one of these, still valid
Each must be dated after your Deed Poll, so it has to be something sent to you since you changed your name. A phone or streaming bill, or a letter from your employer or council, all count.
DVLA needs the original, signed and dated, and that is how ours arrives: one page, drafted in wording we know is accepted, with a box for your signature in your new name and one in your old name, a line for the date, and space for two witnesses. We recommend using both.
Add certified copies at the checkout and you can send the original to DVLA and copies to everyone who takes them, all in the same week.
Married rather than changing your name by deed? Your certificate may be all DVLA needs: your licence after marriage.
The Adult Deed Poll
£18.50
Yes. GOV.UK’s list of what DVLA accepts as proof of a new name includes “a deed poll” and does not ask for it to be enrolled. Send the original, with one document in your new name or the number of a UK passport that shows it. Our Deed Polls are unenrolled and guaranteed to be accepted. Everything DVLA accepts.
No. DVLA’s guidance turns down photocopies, laminated certificates and certified copies, including those certified by the Post Office. Post the original Deed Poll: DVLA returns it to you separately from the new licence. Original or copy.
Yes. DVLA sends identity documents back by second class post, separately from your new licence. If you want to track them, GOV.UK suggests putting a stamped, self-addressed Special Delivery or Signed For envelope in with your application. When it comes back.
Anything on DVLA’s list from the last 12 months: a UK bank statement, a utility bill (mobile, broadband and streaming bills count), a letter from HMRC, your employer or your council, a school report or a medical card. It must still be valid and dated after your Deed Poll and after your current licence. The full list.
Yes, if your UK passport already shows your new name and has not expired. Write its 9-digit number on form D1 and keep the passport: DVLA asks you not to send it. With a Deed Poll, the number stands in for the document in your new name.
No. GOV.UK tells you not to send laminated certificates or photocopies to DVLA. If yours has been laminated, a replacement Deed Poll gives you a new original to send. The Replacement Deed Poll, £18.50.
Something else? Ask a paralegal and we will answer, usually the same working day.
Apply online in about five minutes. Your Deed Poll is hand-drafted by a paralegal, checked and posted the same working day, and guaranteed to be accepted, by DVLA and everyone else.
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