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Driver Enquiries Image Service API Guide

Introduction

The Driver Enquiries Image Service API allows retrieving driver licence photographs and signatures.

Interactions with the Driver Enquiries Image Service API are via a REST interface over HTTPS. In all cases JSON is used to represent request and response data.

The functional specification of this API is detailed in the Enhanced OpenAPI 3.0 documentation.

The Enhanced OpenAPI specification is also available in JSON format.

Request

To call the API, make an HTTP POST request to the following URL: https://driver-vehicle-licensing.api.gov.uk/driver-image-service/v1/images/retrieve

OWASP security guidelines dictate that sensitive information should not be included in URLs. In accordance with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), driving licence numbers are deemed sensitive information so are passed in the body of a POST request as opposed to parameters in a GET request.

Authentication

DVLA Standard Driver Details Service API implements the DVLA secure API pattern so requires usage of the DVLA Authentication API to supply a JSON Web Token (JWT) in addition to the consumer providing their individually assigned API Key.

Body

As a minimum all requests must include the driving licence number in the request body:

{
  "drivingLicenceNumber": "AAAPY602123BH9PF",
  "requiredImage": "photograph"
}

Example

Using curl, a request can be made as follows:

curl -X POST  -d '{
  "drivingLicenceNumber": "AAAPY602123BH9PF",
  "requiredImage": "photograph"
}' https://driver-vehicle-licensing.api.gov.uk/driver-image-service/v1/images/retrieve \
 -H 'accept: application/json' -H 'X-Correlation-ID: dbcf549a-43db-4b95-aea8-1e6b792397bb' -H 'Content-Type: application/json'

Response

A successful request will return a JSON response similar to:

Full details of the response specification is detailed in the ADD OpenAPI 3.0 documentation.

{
  "photograph": {
    "image": "string",
    "imageFormat": "image/jpeg"
  },
  "signature": {
    "image": "string",
    "imageFormat": "image/jpeg"
  },
  "driverRedirect": true
}

Usage Plans and Throttling Limits

We have introduced limits on API usage rates in terms of requests per second. This applies to both individual clients and collective usage for all clients.

  1. A consumer’s limit is set based on the usage plan that the client is subscribed to
  2. As consumers access the API at the same time, there is an overall limit on how many requests are allowed per second in order to protect the service

These two scenarios will return an HTTP status code of 429 as specified in the common errors section.

Support

Please direct any access requests or technical support queries to dessupport@dvla.gov.uk.