Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 15
15
Accepted
We are concerned that the DVLA does not have a more active strategy for encouraging...
Recommendation
We are concerned that the DVLA does not have a more active strategy for encouraging customers to switch from paper to online services, relying on customers to decide themselves to make this transition rather than proactively encouraging and supporting them do so.30 Although the DVLA told us it has seen a huge shift to digital over the last four or five years, the NAO found that the volume of mail arriving at the DVLA has decreased only by 6% between 2019–20 and 2022–23.31 The DVLA told us that future work to switch more of its business online will be challenging, as its digitisation work is past the stage of “early gains” and has moved into “hard graft”. The Department has not set the DVLA targets on digitisation so it remains unclear how the Department will actively monitor the DVLA’s progress in further digitising services.32 26 Qq 12–13; C&AG’s Report, para 11 27 Q 44 28 Qq 65, 97; Letter from DVLA to PAC dated 8 December 29 Qq 16, 93 30 Qq 94–95, 99 31 Q 17; C&AG’s Report, para 1.8 32 Q 96 Driving licence backlogs at the DVLA 13 2 Strategy and planning for driving licence services The DVLA’s contingency planning and prioritisation decisions
Government Response Summary
The DVLA has launched ten new online services during the pandemic and has run four paid campaigns promoting online services since the beginning of the pandemic. The DfT will support the DVLA in gaining the relevant approvals for further paid campaigns to promote the take up and use of online services. The DVLA reflects the higher cost of paper transactions by charging more for certain paper applications than the equivalent online channel and will review this.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3. PAC Conclusion: The DVLA’s efforts to encourage customers who can use online services to do so are not sufficient 3a. PAC recommendation: The Department and the DVLA should consider what more they can do to increase take-up of the DVLA’s online services: • They should understand better why some customers have chosen not to engage with online services. • They should incentivise customers to use digital services and discourage people who can apply online from sending paper applications 3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendations. Target implementation date: December 2023 3.2 The DVLA is a highly digital organisation. In 2022-23, the DVLA processed 3.2 billion automated and digital interactions, up from 1.06 billion in 2019-20. 3.3 The DVLA launched ten new online services during the pandemic, which have encouraged more customers to transact digitally. On average in the last financial year, 6.5 million digital transactions were completed per month, an increase of 400,000 per month from 2019-20. 3.4 The last three years has seen a significant shift to digital services with more than 83% of transactions completed online in 2022-23, up from 74% pre-pandemic. 24 3.5 The DVLA runs year-round no cost communications through stakeholders, media responses, marketing messages and social media. It has run four paid campaigns promoting online services since the beginning of the pandemic. The Department for Transport (the department) will support the DVLA in gaining the relevant approvals for further paid campaigns to promote the take up and use of online services. 3.6 The DVLA reflects the higher cost of paper transactions by charging more for certain paper applications than the equivalent online channel and will review this. 3.7 While a significant majority of customers use the DVLA’s online channels, there will always be those who need or choose to transact by paper. The Lloyds Bank Essential Digital Skills Report 2022 estimated around 10.2m people lack the skills to transact online. The Office for National Statistics estimates that around 2.4 million people on household incomes under £25,000 do not use the internet.