It is a matter of good practice to carry your driving documents with you. However for various reasons (i.e fear of theft of documents from your vehicle or loss of documents) not everyone does.
It is an offence not to produce your documents to a police officer upon request. However, you are allowed to:
- produce the documents within seven days at a police station specified at the time the producer (HO/RT1) was given; or
- produce the documents at the specified station as soon as is reasonably practicable. The length of time this means will be taken on a case by case basis.
So in the above situation you should make every effort to produce the required documents as soon as possible. There is no guarantee however that your reasons for non-production will be accepted and you will then be reported for citation.