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.

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.