Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average time taken is to process a paper application for a driving licence, for each of the last 12 months for which data is available.
The number of paper driving licence applications awaiting processing on a specific date in each of the last 12 months is shown in the table below.
Date | Total |
1 Mar 2021 | 113,632 |
1 Apr 2021 | 171,993 |
1 May 2021 | 306,690 |
1 Jun 2021 | 448,874 |
1 Jul 2021 | 608,934 |
1 Aug 2021 | 628,345 |
1 Sept 2021 | 675,775 |
1 Oct 2021 | 637,411 |
1 Nov 2021 | 549,758 |
1 Dec 2021 | 446,888 |
4 Jan 2022 | 392,821 |
1 Feb 2022 | 384,841 |
The average number of days taken to process a paper application for a driving licence in each of the last 12 months is shown in the table below.
Date | Average working days |
Feb 2021 | 5.2 |
March 2021 | 8.6 |
April 2021 | 12.9 |
May 2021 | 18.1 |
June 2021 | 23.9 |
July 2021 | 32.1 |
August 2021 | 34.8 |
Sept 2021 | 33.3 |
Oct 2021 | 33.9 |
Nov 2021 | 30 |
Dec 2021 | 28.9 |
Jan 2022 | 28 |
The number of full-time equivalent staff working for the DVLA in each of the last ten years is shown in the table below.
Date | Full-Time Equivalent |
31 March 2013 | 5,612.58 |
31 March 2014 | 4,985.10 |
31 March 2015 | 4,918.94 |
31 March 2016 | 5,429.94 |
31 March 2017 | 5,351.16 |
31 March 2018 | 5,195.51 |
31 March 2019 | 5,336.04 |
31 March 2020 | 5,499.17 |
31 March 2021 | 5,467.87 |
31 January 2022 | 5,461.25 |
To help reduce waiting times for paper applications, the DVLA has introduced additional online services, recruited more staff, increased overtime working and has secured extra office space in Swansea and Birmingham. The DVLA has reconfigured its accommodation to safely maximise the number of staff on site and is working hard to process paper applications as quickly as possible.
Together with the ending of industrial action, these measures are having a positive impact.