By Chris Williamson-
The DVLA has been providing registration numbers and mock driving licences for television companies. It has assisted production companies by issuing mock licences for television companies for use in a scene, it has been revealed.
Television soaps including Emmerdale (ITV), EastEnders (BBC) and Hatton Garden (ITV), are some of the soaps the DVLA have issued licenses for. The DVLA has also supplied registration numbers for use by the Grand Tour (Amazon Prime), Saturday Night Takeaway (ITV) and major Hollywood pictures such as Transformers.
Mock driving licences for filming purposes is a long standing process which has been issued by the DVLA for at least 20 years.
Production companies have been charged £80 and will be able to use it for filming or photographing up to 6 months, under agreements made with the DVLA. Should they require a number for longer than six months they would need to pay an additional £80 fee.
The DVLA said it does not charge for issuing mock driving licences, but require all mock licences to be returned to DVLA once filming has been completed. The DVLA also said that motorists do not need to work for a production company in order to assign their perfect plate to their car.
Individuals or companies interested in the DVLA’s services can go online to their personalised registrations website and purchase a number starting from £250 – this price includes the fee for putting a registration number on a vehicle and, unlike the registration numbers provided to production companies, there is no time limit on how long the number can remain on the vehicle.
The DVLA also charges motorists for issuing a first provisional driving licence etc. Although, over three quarters of all transactions processed by the DVLA are free of charge, including some of the most common transactions (such as change of address or change of details) we do charge fees for some transactions.
These fees are pooled in order to help recover overall running costs, the DVLA told The Eye Of Media.Com. The DVLA also provided registration numbers for magazine shoots, adverts and programmes including Hollyoaks (Channel 4), Vera (ITV), Shetland (BBC One) and Rownd a Rownd (S4C).
Jody Davies, DVLA Personalised Registrations Sales Manager, said:
”While we may not get our name included in the credits, we’re proud to have helped so many production companies over the years find their perfect registration number. Our personalised registrations website helps motorists find their perfect number every day. And with prices starting from £250 you don’t need a studio’s budget to make your car stand out.”