Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what advance publicity was made to advertise recent driving licence policy changes at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) utilised media, online and direct mail channels to inform customers and businesses about the abolition of the paper counterpart to the photocard driving licence. The DVLA also engaged directly with trade organisations and car hire companies who may need to check the status of drivers. Since March 2015, the DVLA has written directly to 640,000 professional bus and lorry drivers and sent information to around a million drivers each month with driving licence renewals. Information on GOV.UK about the change has been viewed more than 2.6 million times and DVLA representatives took part in 40 pre-planned broadcast interviews on 8 June, the day the change was introduced.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what savings have been made at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency through not issuing tax badges for displaying on cars, and what assessment has been made of potential losses in tax revenue through increased difficulty in identifying non-payers.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) collects £6 billion in vehicle excise duty every year. The changes to the administration of vehicle excise duty are expected to save the DVLA £13.8m each year. A breakdown of these savings is shown below:
No longer having to print or store tax discs. | £1.3m pa |
No longer having to post tax discs to customers. | £7.9m pa |
No longer having to process applications for vehicle excise duty refunds (which are now paid automatically without the need for an application) or handle enquiries about lost or missing tax discs. | £1.2m pa |
Reduction in Post Office Ltd costs as they no longer issue paper tax discs, but offer an assisted digital service instead. | £3.4m pa |
Businesses will also save an estimated £8.6m each year from not having to post tax discs to customers, apply for refunds of vehicle excise duty and pay to replace lost or stolen tax discs.
The Tax Impact and Information Note published by Her Majesty’s Treasury alongside the Finance Bill 2014 stated that abolition of the tax disc was not expected to have an Exchequer impact. The DVLA operates a comprehensive package of measures to tackle vehicle excise duty evasion. These range from the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition camera, reminder letters, and penalties through to court prosecutions and the wheelclamping and/or removal of unlicensed vehicles. This approach has not changed following abolition of the tax disc. The DVLA will continue to monitor vehicle excise duty evasion rates.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what level of telephone service was available recently at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency for motorists who wished to prove their credentials in order to hire cars following recent changes in policy.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
To prepare for the abolition of the paper counterpart to the photocard driving licence, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) increased the number of telephone lines by 50% and staffing levels by 28%.
This has successfully addressed the 18% increase in the number of calls received. In the week commencing 8 June, the DVLA answered all calls to the dedicated local rate telephone service to check driving licence details, within one minute 55 seconds.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to the difficulties caused by recent changes in policies relating to the issuing of driving licences to elderly motorists and other motorists who either do not use the internet or do not have easy access to the internet.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has introduced a number of services for drivers and others to obtain the information that was previously held on the paper counterpart to the driving licence. These include an online service, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Drivers who cannot or do not wish to use the online service can telephone the DVLA to obtain a code which will allow them to share their driving licence details if they wish to do so. Drivers can also give permission to the DVLA for certain information from their record to be given verbally over the telephone to a nominated person or organisation.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will investigate the difficulties reported as having been caused by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency policies in relation to the hiring of motor vehicles.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The paper counterpart to the photocard driving licence was abolished on 8 June 2015 as part of the Red Tape Challenge commitments. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) introduced a number of services for drivers and others to obtain the information that was previously held on the counterpart. These include an online service.
There was a slowdown in service on 8 June, when high demand led to some customers being unable to access the online service. During this period, the DVLA increased the number of available telephone lines in its contact centre. This meant that all customers who needed a code to be able to share their driving licence details with third parties, including car hire companies, could get one. In the week commencing 8 June, the DVLA answered all calls to the dedicated local rate telephone service to check driving licence details within one minute 55 seconds.
The issue with the DVLA’s online service was fixed at around 1am on 9 June and the service has been working as it should since. More than 280,000 customers have successfully used the online service between Monday 8 June and Thursday 11 June and more than 83,000 check codes have been generated. Also, more than 18,000 check codes have been redeemed by third parties to check the details on the driving licences.