Recommendation 17

The DVLA’s system for managing paper-based driving licence applications relies on people being on site to manually process applications. The DVLA and the Department told us that when they determined priorities in 2020, they knew this system was susceptible to disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the solution was investment in the estate to enable more DVLA staff to return to work on site to process paper applications.34 Around a decade before, the DVLA had reduced and centralised its office space, which saved money but also reduced its resilience. The DVLA told us that, “for many years, it absolutely worked and was the right decision” but that in a pandemic, it meant the DVLA became susceptible to local levels of infection.35 The Department told us that by March 2022, the DVLA had enabled around 2,500 staff working on other services, such as vehicle services, to work remotely, despite none being able to do so before the COVID-19 pandemic. At the start of 2020, the DVLA had piloted remote working for some service areas and started to roll out laptops, but most staff on site still used desktop computers.36