Driving Licences

(asked on 22nd November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average waiting time is for a person to (a) receive and (b) renew their driving licence.


Answered by
Trudy Harrison Portrait
Trudy Harrison
This question was answered on 30th November 2021

The quickest and easiest way to apply for a driving licence is to use the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online services. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their licence within a few days.

However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application. The DVLA receives around 60,000 items of mail every day. Currently, paper driving licence applications are likely to take six to ten weeks to process. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found here.

Specific information about the average waiting time for a person to receive their driving licence is not held but it takes an average of three days for mail issued by the DVLA to be received by the customer. The average time taken to process paper driving licence renewal applications between April and October 2021 was 32 working days for routine applications for entitlement to drive cars and motorcycles and 21 working days for routine applications for vocational licences. Applications where the driver has a medical condition that must be investigated before a licence can be issued will take longer.

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