British motorists spent £19 million on replacement driving licences last year, new figures show.

More than 930,000 licences were reported lost, damaged or stolen in 2017, according to the DVLA.

Replacement licences cost motorists £20 each.

A DVLA survey found young people were most likely to carry their licences on them, while drivers in Scotland were twice as likely as the rest of Britain to store them at home.

The DVLA’s drivers service manager Dudley Ashford said: “While you don’t legally have to carry your licence with you when driving, you need to have a licence in case you need to prove you can drive.

“If you are going to carry it around with you and you then lose it, it’s always quicker to apply for a new one online.”

Steve Gooding, director of motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, said: “It seems we are as good at losing driving licences as we are socks, pens and teaspoons.

“At least we no longer have to worry about looking after the paper counterpart to our licence, which was phased out in 2015.

“In the year they were abolished almost half a million of these were lost too.”