Except that you actually have to have an engineers licence for it to appear on!!!!!!!!!
I suspect that you might be right in that the CAA are now using a number to identify the individual and not the licence. Maybe someone who holds both can confirm that.
I understand that in a least one UK case a licence was never produced, with various excuses e.g it's with the CAA, lost in the post, eaten by the dog e.t.c.
Without sight of the document or confirming it's existence with the CAA no approval should have been issued.