UK Driving Licence Number

>- This pattern is based on a Microsoft Purview built-in sensitive information type. Users already running Purview may prefer to enable the built-in SIT directly, or use this version as a starting point for customisation. Detects UK driving licence numbers. GB licences follow a 16-character format encoding surname, date of birth, and gender. Northern Ireland licences are 8-digit numbers.

Type: regex
Engine: universal
Confidence: medium
Confidence justification: Medium confidence: GB format is structurally distinctive at 16 characters but NI format is a simple 8-digit number. Corroborative keywords like 'driving licence' are recommended.
Detection quality: Verified
Jurisdictions: uk
Frameworks: ISO 27001, ISO 27701
Data categories: pii, government-id
Scope: narrow
Risk rating: 6
Platform compatibility: Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Compatible, Netskope: Compatible

Pattern

\b([A-Z9]{5}\d[0-6]\d[0-3]\d\d[A-Z9]{2}\d[A-Z0-9]{2}|\d{8})\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

driving licence, driver licence, DL, licence number, license number, DVLA, ID number, identification, ID card, license, permit, registration, certificate

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

MORGA657054SM9IJ — GB driving licence format
JONES710238JA9AA — Alternate GB licence
12345678 — Northern Ireland format

Should not match

SHORT1 — Too short for either format
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQR — Too long and doesn't match structure

Known false positives

8-digit numbers matching NI format may be phone numbers, account numbers, or other identifiers Mitigation: Require corroborative evidence keywords within proximity window.

References

U.K. drivers license number entity definition - Microsoft Learn

Collections

European National IDs