The short answer
What is lost is the document, not the entitlement. You apply for a replacement at the licensing authority for your place of residence, with ID, a biometric photo and a declaration about the loss. You may keep driving until the new one arrives; not carrying a licence does risk a small fine.
The most important sentence first, because it takes the panic out: your entitlement to drive is a permission, and it sits in a register. The licence is only the proof of it. So what is gone is the proof.
What you need
- A valid identity card or passport
- A current biometric photo
- A declaration about the loss — depending on the office, a form or a statutory declaration
- If it was stolen: the police report, which is sensible in any case
- There is a fee; the authority sets it, not us
May you keep driving?
Yes. Driving without the document on you is something entirely different from driving without an entitlement: the first is a small fine, the second is a criminal offence. At a roadside check your entitlement is looked up in the register — the missing licence is then a formality, not a driving ban. In practice it helps to carry the confirmation that you have applied.
Because these calls come to us and not to the authority. For many people we are the last place that ever had anything to do with their licence, so they ring here — sometimes decades after the test. We cannot issue anything and send them on, but the question everybody is really calling with can be answered on the phone: no, you do not have to redo anything.
What a driving school has to do with it
Nothing. There is no test, no eyesight check, no driving lesson and no certificate we could issue for it. It is purely an administrative matter at the licensing authority. If the occasion made you realise you have not driven for years, that is a different question — and refresher lessons are what it is for.
If the old one turns up
Then it has to be handed in. Two valid documents for the same entitlement may not exist, and the old one becomes invalid when the new one is issued — even if it looks perfectly intact.
Not to be confused with the compulsory exchange of old licences: that is a different process with its own deadlines and is covered in the exchange deadline.
What to take away
A lost licence is a trip to the authority, not a setback. The entitlement exists throughout — apply for the replacement promptly, and carry the confirmation until it arrives.