I too renewed last year after an eleven year gap and had to retake all exams (except the FROTL) together with what was, in effect, a "half PPL"...some 15 hours flying which included handling, qualifying cross country and skills test.
I have an original "lifetime" licence but when I received my pack back from the CAA had been issued with a "UK" licence with a new number. My reissued ratings (Night/IMC) however still refer to the old licence number
Shortly after completing my renewal, the CAA then decided ( around Oct I think) that the written exams did not have to be taken anymore
That said, I found the written exams to quite useful as reminders and updates to current practice.
What did seem daft was that after the mandatory dual 1 hour of general handling and 2 hours of stall/spin awareness ( you try doing that for 2 hours...it gets stunningly boring so we went off and had fun instead...), my instructor said I was more than capable of passing a skills test. However, the CAA requirement then stated that I had to do 10 hours of solo flying before I could be skills tested. It was all good fun of course but surely the decision as to how much extra flying is required should be down to the CFI?
Perhaps this has changed in the new requirements as well?