Complaints procedure

How to complain if you’re unhappy with the service you get from DVLA.


If you’re unhappy with the service we’ve provided

You must first contact the department that you’ve been dealing with (this is the quickest way to resolve your issue). To deal with your concerns you’ll need to tell us:

  • your full name and address
  • your date of birth
  • your driver number (for complaints about your driving licence)
  • your vehicle registration number, including the make and model of the vehicle (for complaints about vehicle licensing, registration or enforcement)
  • any reference number we’ve provided on previous correspondence

If you’ve spoken to the department but your issue has not been resolved, follow the process below to make a formal complaint.

Making a formal complaint

Step 1

If you’ve tried to resolve matters with the department you’ve been dealing with and you are not happy with the outcome, write to our complaints team telling them your concerns.

If you have not tried to resolve the issue before writing to our complaints team, we’ll get the relevant department to reply to you.

To make your complaint, contact our complaints team or write to:

Complaints Team
DVLA
Swansea
SA6 7JL

We’ll acknowledge receipt of your complaint and aim to send you a full reply within 10 working days.

Step 2

If you’ve been through Step 1 and you feel that your complaint has not been resolved, write to our Chief Executive, who will make sure your case is reviewed and responded to. We aim to respond within 10 working days.

Write to:

Chief Executive’s Office
DVLA
Swansea
SA6 7JL

You can also contact our Chief Executive’s office. Please do not contact them with general enquiries, or if you have not made a formal complaint yet. If this happens, your complaint or enquiry will be dealt with or answered by the relevant department.

An independent review

If you think your complaint has not been resolved through our 2 step formal complaints procedure, you can ask us to refer your complaint to an Independent Complaints Assessor (ICA).

They’ll review the way your case was handled and will expect you to have tried to resolve your complaint directly with us, in line with our complaints procedure, before they consider your complaint. Find out more information about what the ICAs cover.

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

If you are not satisfied and you’ve had your complaint investigated by the ICA, you can ask a Member of Parliament (MP) to refer your complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO).

We welcome all feedback including concerns, complaints or comments on what we’ve done well. We want to do everything we can to learn to do more of what we do well and improve where we can do better.

We aim to meet the PHSO’s UK Central Government Complaint Standards when handling complaints. These standards help us provide a quicker and simpler complaints handling service that:

  • promotes a learning culture
  • welcomes complaints in a positive way
  • is thorough and fair
  • gives fair and accountable responses

You can find out more on the PHSO website.

Privacy notice

For further information about how we process your data, your rights and who to contact, see our privacy notice.

Our commitment

Customers are at the heart of our business and we are committed to providing a high quality of service to everyone. We value your feedback and are committed to act on any concerns or complaints about the service we provide.

We aim to:

  • objectively investigate all complaints and put things right for you when it is possible
  • learn from where we went wrong
  • make sure we do not make the same mistake again

DVLA complaints statistics and what we learn from complaints

DVLA complaints statistics 2019 to 2020 and how we have improved from customer feedback

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