Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average processing time is for driving licence applications by (a) new applications, (b) renewal applications and (c) replacement applications.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The quickest and easiest way to apply for a driving licence is by using the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online service. 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 and the DVLA receives around 60,000 items of mail every day. 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. There may be additional delays in processing more complex transactions, for example if medical investigations are needed. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found here.
The large majority of applicants renewing an existing licence will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing the driver can meet specific criteria. More information can be found online here.
In 2021, the DVLA received 16,972 items of correspondence from Members of Parliament. Of these, 36% were answered within the DVLA’s target of eight working days. The DVLA has allocated extra resource to the team that deals with enquiries from Members of Parliament and we expect that this will start to show an improving picture going forward.
The table below shows the average processing time for ordinary driving licence applications between 1 April 2021 and 28 February 2022 in working days, by (a) new applications, (b) renewal applications, and (c) replacement applications.
| (a) new applications | (b) renewal applications | (c) replacement applications |
Online application | 2.33 | 1.56 | 1.62 |
Paper application | 25.08 | 30.56 | 33.70 |
The table below shows the average waiting time for customers to speak to a DVLA agent by telephone in each of the last five years and during the current year.
Year | Minutes |
2016-17 | 0.5 |
2017-18 | 1.0 |
2018-19 | 1.1 |
2019-20 | 1.3 |
2020-21 | 7.3 |
2021-22 | 11.1 |
Since 1 April 2020, the DVLA’s contact centre has recruited and trained 166 extra staff with 20 more due to join during March and a further 150 being recruited. In addition, the DVLA’s new customer service centres in Swansea and Birmingham have recruited extra staff who are processing medical driving licence applications as well as supporting customers who call the contact centre.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the (a) number of enquiries made to the DVLA from Members of Parliament and (b) proportion of those queries answered within that agency's service standard on enquiry response time.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The quickest and easiest way to apply for a driving licence is by using the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online service. 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 and the DVLA receives around 60,000 items of mail every day. 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. There may be additional delays in processing more complex transactions, for example if medical investigations are needed. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found here.
The large majority of applicants renewing an existing licence will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing the driver can meet specific criteria. More information can be found online here.
In 2021, the DVLA received 16,972 items of correspondence from Members of Parliament. Of these, 36% were answered within the DVLA’s target of eight working days. The DVLA has allocated extra resource to the team that deals with enquiries from Members of Parliament and we expect that this will start to show an improving picture going forward.
The table below shows the average processing time for ordinary driving licence applications between 1 April 2021 and 28 February 2022 in working days, by (a) new applications, (b) renewal applications, and (c) replacement applications.
| (a) new applications | (b) renewal applications | (c) replacement applications |
Online application | 2.33 | 1.56 | 1.62 |
Paper application | 25.08 | 30.56 | 33.70 |
The table below shows the average waiting time for customers to speak to a DVLA agent by telephone in each of the last five years and during the current year.
Year | Minutes |
2016-17 | 0.5 |
2017-18 | 1.0 |
2018-19 | 1.1 |
2019-20 | 1.3 |
2020-21 | 7.3 |
2021-22 | 11.1 |
Since 1 April 2020, the DVLA’s contact centre has recruited and trained 166 extra staff with 20 more due to join during March and a further 150 being recruited. In addition, the DVLA’s new customer service centres in Swansea and Birmingham have recruited extra staff who are processing medical driving licence applications as well as supporting customers who call the contact centre.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made a projection of expected rail passenger numbers, as a proportion of pre-pandemic levels, for the next 12 months.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Department continues to actively work to understand the impact of coronavirus and other factors on rail demand. As part of this we are ensuring that we use a range of rail demand scenarios based on a series of factors that could drive rail demand over the short and long term to influence decisions. These include economic forecasts and behavioural factors. The Department continues to monitor evidence on behaviour changes as a result of the pandemic.
Given the considerable uncertainty that the pandemic has caused, these scenarios cannot be used as forecasts. However, they do reflect some of the possible impacts of the pandemic on future rail demand.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, If he will review his Department's estimates of projected traffic growth on the strategic network to take account of changed behaviours as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Department regularly reviews the evidence on the drivers of travel demand and sources of uncertainty and will publish an update to the road traffic forecasts 2018 in due course. The next set of National Road Traffic Projections (NRTP) will provide a strategic view of how demand for road travel may evolve in the future and explore uncertainties associated with future demand including the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. The Department collects numerous sets of data that help inform its view on travel demand, which will inform NRTP, including:
The National Travel Attitudes Study asks questions about changes in travel behaviours, such as levels working from home before and during the pandemic. This longitudinal survey data is a key element of the Department’s evidence on changing travel habits during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as people’s intentions going forward.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to ensure that his Department and its agencies remove all internal covid-19 related policies, restrictions and mask mandates.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
I can confirm that following the publication of the COVID-19 Response: Living with COVID-19 plan on 21 February the Department for Transport and its Agencies has taken steps to ensure our internal Covid-19 policies and principles align with the latest Government guidance.
This includes the Working Safely during Coronavirus (COVID-19): Guidance published on 24 February. This continues to require organisations to carry out a risk assessment which includes the risk from COVID-19. It also sets out additional actions organisations can take to protect employees and customers in the workplace, such as ensuring adequate ventilation, frequent cleaning, asking people to wash their hands frequently and asking people with COVID-19 to stay away. The guidance advises that people continue to wear face coverings in crowded and enclosed settings where they come into contact with people they do not normally meet, when rates of transmission are high.
These principles align with the current advice provided by the Department and will support and reassure our employees that they can continue to return to the workplace in a safe and controlled way. Our policies will be updated to reflect any further changes in Government advice. This includes where there may be differences in approach in the devolved administrations.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure children and young people from low income families are able to access opportunities with the National Citizen Service.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The National Citizen Service (NCS) is a universal programme that is available to all 15-17 year olds, and maintains a policy that no young person is prevented from taking part because of cost.
NCS is able to engage a diverse group of young people, over-indexing in participation rates compared to the national population for certain priority groups. In 2019, 23% of participants were on free school meals (compared to 14% nationally) and 16.3% were living in Opportunity Areas (compared to 14.4% nationally).
NCS ensures that young people from low income families can access the programme through various measures:
Bursary schemes, which cover 80% of the participant contribution, reducing it to £10 or, in some cases, entirely. In Summer 2021, over 10,000 young people accessed a bursary.
The NCS Inclusion Fund, which enables NCS’s network of providers to remove barriers to taking part in the programme, supporting young people with transport, food, and kit. In 2021, almost 300 young people benefited from the fund.
A dedicated community engagement team focused on increasing accessibility by considering differing levels of deprivation and connecting with local youth organisations and Local Authorities.
Nonetheless, there is a perceived barrier for some. 2021 survey results from 1,640 young people show that for those not interested in participating in NCS, 7% cited cost as the reason. This is significantly lower than other reasons including wanting to spend time doing other things and concerns about coronavirus. NCS remains committed to removing these perceived barriers and continues to develop approaches to overcoming them.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate she has made of the number of children who are unable to take part in National Citizen Service due to the cost of attending.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The National Citizen Service (NCS) is a universal programme that is available to all 15-17 year olds, and maintains a policy that no young person is prevented from taking part because of cost.
NCS is able to engage a diverse group of young people, over-indexing in participation rates compared to the national population for certain priority groups. In 2019, 23% of participants were on free school meals (compared to 14% nationally) and 16.3% were living in Opportunity Areas (compared to 14.4% nationally).
NCS ensures that young people from low income families can access the programme through various measures:
Bursary schemes, which cover 80% of the participant contribution, reducing it to £10 or, in some cases, entirely. In Summer 2021, over 10,000 young people accessed a bursary.
The NCS Inclusion Fund, which enables NCS’s network of providers to remove barriers to taking part in the programme, supporting young people with transport, food, and kit. In 2021, almost 300 young people benefited from the fund.
A dedicated community engagement team focused on increasing accessibility by considering differing levels of deprivation and connecting with local youth organisations and Local Authorities.
Nonetheless, there is a perceived barrier for some. 2021 survey results from 1,640 young people show that for those not interested in participating in NCS, 7% cited cost as the reason. This is significantly lower than other reasons including wanting to spend time doing other things and concerns about coronavirus. NCS remains committed to removing these perceived barriers and continues to develop approaches to overcoming them.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the duration of accessibility to the Bus Recovery Grant beyond April 2022.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We have provided unprecedented support for local transport during the pandemic. For bus, operators and local authorities have received funding through the £1.5bn Coronavirus Bus Service Support Grant, and the ongoing £226.5m Bus Recovery Grant.
We recognise the ongoing challenges faced by operators and Local Transport Authorities and discussions on how best to support them are underway.
To assist in the short term, the Department is making available an additional £29m in recovery funding this financial year, on top of the previously announced £226.5m. This will be provided through the Bus Recovery Grant in the form of an uplift to recipients, including operators and LTAs. This will assist the sector in maintaining high service levels.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to support bus providers that may be unable to offer full services after the cessation of the Bus Recovery Grant in April 2022.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We have provided unprecedented support for local transport during the pandemic. For bus, operators and local authorities have received funding through the £1.5bn Coronavirus Bus Service Support Grant, and the ongoing £226.5m Bus Recovery Grant.
We recognise the ongoing challenges faced by operators and Local Transport Authorities and discussions on how best to support them are underway.
To assist in the short term, the Department is making available an additional £29m in recovery funding this financial year, on top of the previously announced £226.5m. This will be provided through the Bus Recovery Grant in the form of an uplift to recipients, including operators and LTAs. This will assist the sector in maintaining high service levels.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the impact of the cessation of the Bus Recovery Grant in April 2022 on the ability of bus services to maintain levels of service.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We have provided unprecedented support for local transport during the pandemic. For bus, operators and local authorities have received funding through the £1.5bn Coronavirus Bus Service Support Grant, and the ongoing £226.5m Bus Recovery Grant.
We recognise the ongoing challenges faced by operators and Local Transport Authorities and discussions on how best to support them are underway.
To assist in the short term, the Department is making available an additional £29m in recovery funding this financial year, on top of the previously announced £226.5m. This will be provided through the Bus Recovery Grant in the form of an uplift to recipients, including operators and LTAs. This will assist the sector in maintaining high service levels.