Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to reports that 50 per cent of civil servants at the DVLA are refusing to come back into the workplace, what steps they will take to outsource DVLA work to companies based in the UK and overseas.

It is not correct that 50 per cent of civil servants at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) are refusing to come back into the workplace. In line with Welsh Government covid measures all staff who are carrying out a role that can be done from home, continue to do so. Staff who perform operational duties which cannot be done from home are working on site.

The DVLA continues to explore opportunities to improve the time taken to deal with paper applications and has been developing new online services and recruiting additional staff. The DVLA has temporarily utilised the private sector for some elements of work only where it has been appropriate to do so.

The DVLA is also looking to secure extra office space to accommodate more staff as surge capacity accommodation and resource to help reduce backlogs while providing future resilience and business continuity.