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The end of the driving licence? Motorists could soon store their DVLA documents in Apple's Wallet app on their iPhone

DVLA's CEO tweets prototype of the digital driving licence
Licences will be stored on Apple's Wallet app along with digital cards
Idea is still in the early development stages with no decided launch date
Old paper licences were discontinued last year

Published: 18:13 GMT, 16 May 2016 | Updated: 08:15 GMT, 17 May 2016

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Britain's DVLA has revealed it is working on a prototype digital driving licence (pictured) that can be carried in the Wallet app of Apple's iPhone

If you're forever mislaying your driving licence, help may be at hand.

Experts have begun to develop a version of the UK licence for smartphones, so you'll always have to to hand.

This means that in the future, you could keep it in the Apple Wallet app on your iPhone, for example.

Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency's (DVLA) chief executive Oliver Morley showed off an image of a 'prototype' of the digital driving licence on Twiiter, where the licence appears as a 'pass' in the Apple Wallet.

Mr Morley said it would be used as an 'add-on' to the existing photocard and insisted that security is the DVLA's 'priority'.

However, there is no timeline for when the digital licence will be launched.

The paper part of the licence was abolished in June last year as part of the Government's drive to reduce unnecessary red tape.

However, the UK is not the only country to be exploring the idea of digital documents.

Iowa in the US is currently trialling the use of digital ID cards instead of physical papers.

Digitalised British passports are also a new avenue being explored by developers.

Earlier this year British banknote printer, De La Rou, announced their plan to make it possible to store passports on smartphones.

This move would mean the end of carrying a jumble of paper documents and follows the introduction of electronic boarding passes.

Still in the development phase, De La Rou is trying to find ways to make the digital passport secure enough to be accepted by governments - a problem faced by all forms of digital identification, including driving licences.

Australia and New Zealand made the first move in the lean towards cloud passports and has been in discussion about trialling them.

So here's a little prototype of something we're working on #drivinglicence pic.twitter.com/a5eItrdiNI
— Oliver Morley (@omorley1) May 13, 2016

Experts have begun to develop a version of the UK licence for smartphones, so that you could one day keep the important document in the Apple Wallet app on your iPhone. A prototype is shown above

HOW A PAPERLESS PASSPORT MIGHT WORK

Each holder's personal information and biometric data would be stored online

That data would then be made accessible to customs officials

Biometric data includes things such as: fingerprints, digital photograph, date of birth and passport expiry date

Cameras using facial recognition software and fingerprint scanners could confirm a persons identity

However, significant security and anti-counterfeit measures would need to be included.

Mobile phones can already be used to replace boarding passes (pictured), but banknote and passport printing company De La Rue has said it is working on a new project to develop paperless passports that will be embedded in phones, meaning travellers will have to carry less paperwork with them