Identity document
Other forms of officially accepted identification include the driver's license and the birth certificate. However, these are accepted only in limited circumstances and cannot take the place of the ID Card in most cases. The ID Card is mandatory for dealing with government institutions, banks or currency exchange shops. A valid passport may also be accepted, but usually only for foreigners.
Identity document
Driving licences, particularly the photocard driving licence introduced in 1998, and passports are now the most widely used ID documents in the United Kingdom, but the former cannot be used as travel documents, except within the Common Travel Area. However, driving licences from the UK and other EU countries are usually accepted within other EEA countries for identity verification. Given that passports do not fit in a typical wallet or purse, most people do not carry their passports in public without an advance that they are going to need them. For people from the UK and other countries where national ID cards are not used or not common, this leaves driving licences as the only valid form of ID to be presented, if requested by an authority for a legitimately-given reason, but unlike a travel document, they do not show the holder's nationality or immigration status. Colloquially, in day-to-day life, most authorities do not ask for identification from individuals in a sudden, spot check type manner, such as by police or security guards, although this may become a concern in instances of stop and search.