They do come out with statements of pure genius.....national licence, new type added comes back with "date of initial issue" set in 2015! Why, I ask, this is the answer i received..
The initial issue date on the licence is based on the expiry date of your previous UK licence from our systems. Therefore our system will unfortunately not be able to change the initial issue date back to 30/12/1999.
Unbelievable, I am now presenting a licence that has not been issued yet!
Genius.