Uk driving licence

Anyone know if you need to sit a driving test when you go back to the UK to live? We have been resident in Spain for five years and held UK licences for decades before coming out to Spain.

Of course not. Simply exchange the Spanish one for your previous UK one. It's what a reciprocal agreement means.

Thanks Marcliff, that’s a relief!

If you passed your test in UK then you are always entitled to reapply for a UK licence if you return and become resident again.

The fact that you may have exchanged it for a Spanish, or any other foreign licence, does not take away that right but you will have to surrender it as part of the process.

Strictly speaking that is not really an exchange and is nothing to do with the reciprocal agreement which is for exchanging a UK licence for Spanish, not going back the other way.

Thanks Darro, imagine having to sit a driving test having driven for half a century. I’d probably fail haha!

Darro wrote:If you passed your test in UK then you are always entitled to reapply for a UK licence if you return and become resident again.

The fact that you may have exchanged it for a Spanish, or any other foreign licence, does not take away that right but you will have to surrender it as part of the process.

Strictly speaking that is not really an exchange and is nothing to do with the reciprocal agreement which is for exchanging a UK licence for Spanish, not going back the other way.

So a reciprocal agreement is only one way then? Of course it's the same. You change your Spanish licence for a UK regardless of whether you had one before or not.
Yes, they will check if you had one before but they still go through the same procedure as if you hadn't and hand in your Spanish one.

Nitpicking does not become you.

Semantically sloppy perhaps but not nitpicking.

Technically you would only 'exchange' a Spanish licence for UK if you'd sat your test in Spain which is not the OP's case,
nor for the vast majority of Brits.

I repeat, you are always entitled to a UK licence if you passed your test there, having to hand in a Spanish licence you obtained in exchange for it at some point in the interim is incidental.

Even if you were banned in Spain DVLA could not use that to deny you a licence.

Q. Do I need to take a driving test.
A. No
End of
The procedure for getting your UK driving licence is exactly the same whether you passed the test in Spain or in UK.

Thanks everyone!

You can just exchange it and it's free. Before Brexit I phoned the DVLA about this very thing and they also confirmed I could use the EU licence until it expired, but that may be different now. You could also get the required form from a Post Office, but I'm not sure if they still offer that service. Full details on the attached.