DVLA business plan 2023 to 2024
Published 21 November 2023
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Non-Executive Chair’s introduction
Our focus for the year ahead remains to continue to put our customers at the heart of everything we do. That includes developing and introducing new digital services so customers have the best experience possible when using our services.
We will also continue to explore the latest technology to make sure we are communicating with our customers in the most effective and helpful way we can whilst continuing to explore opportunities to improve sustainability, increase efficiencies and make savings through enhancements to infrastructure and processes across the business.
We know that our customers expect fast and efficient services from us and we will aim to meet our targets on dispatching important documents like driving licences, tachograph cards and vehicle registration certificates that our customers need. Where our services rely on external reports or inputs, for example from a medical professional, we will continue to work hard to minimise any resultant delays where this is within our gift to do so. We will also work hard to retain the customer service standards we currently hold and we will continue to listen and act on customer feedback where possible.
DVLA is committed to improving the quality and delivery of public services for everyone in society. Respecting and valuing differences will help to ensure that our services reflect the needs and experiences of the people we serve. Those working for us and with us, as delivery partners in providing our services, also have a personal responsibility for implementing and promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion in their day-to-day transactions with customers and our staff.
We have much to deliver this year. I am sure the many innovative customer service enhancements this business plan will deliver will be welcomed by many and I am very much looking forward to the year ahead.
Lesley Cowley OBE, Non-Executive Chair
March 2023
Chief Executive’s foreword
We take great pride in being a forward thinking, customer focused digital organisation. We aim to provide world class customer services to the millions of customers we serve throughout the UK.
We are committed to a programme of continual improvement and this challenging and exciting business plan sets out our priorities for the coming year. Our 3-year strategic plan is in its final year in 2023-24, and this is the final business plan in that cycle, showing what our focus will be for this year to achieve the aims in the strategic plan.
One of our priorities is the continued development of the Driver and Vehicles account, which is a customer facing service hosted on GOV.UK. It has been developed and tested in private beta and during the year the service will be available to the public. Over time, the service will become a single portal for our customers to access their driver and vehicle services in one place, allowing them to increasingly self-serve, offering quick, easy, and convenient ways to interact with us, and ultimately enabling a more personalised experience. The Driver and Vehicles account is being developed iteratively and in an agile way, so we will be adding services and functionality throughout its private and public beta stages. In the coming year both the 10-year driving licence renewal and application for a first provisional licence services will be developed through the account.
Another feature of the new service this year will be the ‘go paperless’ option where customers can sign up for a digital reminder to tax their vehicle rather than relying on an annual paper reminder we currently send through the post.
Good customer service coupled with customer satisfaction, remains incredibly important to us and throughout the year we will continue to listen to customer feedback and explore customer journeys to see where we can make further improvements.
We will continue to invest in our high-performing and dedicated workforce to ensure they have the skills, knowledge, tools, training and support to enable them to deliver this business plan.
We have more than 6,000 staff and they are central to the success of DVLA and the delivery of our many services. I look forward to working alongside them to deliver this business plan.
Julie Lennard, DVLA Chief Executive and Accounting Officer
March 2023
1. Who we are and what we do
We are an executive agency of the Department for Transport (DfT). Our core responsibilities are to maintain records of more than 50 million drivers and more than 40 million vehicles.
We collect more than £7 billion a year in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED). We employ more than 6,000 staff who are based on our campus in Swansea and in our office in Birmingham.
DVLA is a digital organisation with over 3 billion customer transactions and enquiries each year. Our high volume digital services provide customers with a choice around how and when they interact with us.
Our goal is to get the right drivers and vehicles taxed and on the road as simply, safely and efficiently for the public as possible. We develop our services around meeting our customers’ needs, helping businesses and the public by providing reliable, user-friendly services.
We work closely with a wide range of stakeholders including industry, the police, medical professionals, charities and other government departments.
2. Plans for 2023 to 2024
| Strategic goal | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1. Customer-centric | Target | |
|
DVLA Measure 2023-24: 1.1 We will dispatch applications made online for a: • driving licence in 3 working days • vehicle registration certificate in 3 working days • tachograph in 3 working days |
95% |
|
| 1.2 We will dispatch applications made by post for a: • driving licence in 10 working days • vehicle registration certificate in 10 working days |
90% |
|
| 1.3 We will dispatch vocational applications made by post for a: • tachograph in 5 working days • vocational driving licence in 5 working days |
90% |
|
| 1.4 We will make a licensing decision on medical cases within 90 days | 90% | |
| 1.5 We will retain the Customer Service Excellence Standard | Retain standard | |
| 1.6 We will retain the Customer Contact Association Global Standard 8 | Retain standard | |
| 1.7 We will provide planned customer IT service availability of: • vehicle tax • vehicle management • personalised registration • driver licensing online services |
99.5% |
| Strategic goal | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2. A dynamic digital organisation | Target | |
|
DVLA Measure 2023-24: 2.1 We will add the 10-year Driver Renewal transaction to the DVLA Driver and Vehicles online account |
December 2023 |
|
| 2.2 We will complete the discovery phase of the changes required to enable the new electric vehicle taxation legislation | September 2023 | |
| 2.3 We will roll-out Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to additional vehicles transactions and complete analysis on the feasibility of the wider use of RPA | June 2023 | |
| 2.4 We will exceed our total digital and automated interactions | 90% |
| Strategic goal | ||
|---|---|---|
| 3. Data driven | Target | |
|
DVLA Measure 2023-24: 3.1 We will enhance our data science function to continue to refine decision making and provide benefits for our customers and taxpayers |
March 2024 |
| Strategic goal | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4. A great place to work | Target | |
|
DVLA Measure 2023-24: 4.1 To continue expanding career frameworks across all DVLA professions. The career frameworks provide structure to talent management and development, and can enable entry paths to professions |
March 2024 |
|
| 4.2 We will carry out work to improve the sustainability of/or reduce the environmental impacts of our operational estate and travel by developing a strategy to install more efficient plant, equipment, and renewables across the estate to reduce carbon emissions | March 2024 | |
| 4.3 We will continue to use our apprenticeships and development programmes to provide our digital and technology talent pipeline, working with local education partners in areas such as: • Year in Industry • Software Engineering • Cloud Engineering • Ethical Hacking • Software Development Engineering in Test • Business Analysis Totalling a minimum of 20 new recruits |
March 2024 |
DfT/DVLA commitments 2023-24
| Freedom of Information Act – provide a response within 20 working days | 90% |
|---|---|
| Parliamentary questions – provide a response by due date | 100% |
| Ministerial correspondence – provide a response within 8 working days | 95% |
| Official correspondence – provide a response within 20 working days | 80% |
| Prompt payments – payment of invoices within 5 working days | 80% |
2.1 Customer-centric
We will ensure that we get drivers and vehicles on the road as quickly and as safely as possible.
We will continue to improve our services to make it easier for our customers to transact and communicate with us, particularly through our multi-channel contact centre. We will continuously improve our services and offer customers choice in how they transact with us.
Customer satisfaction
We will continue with our ongoing programme of research to understand customer expectations and experience of our services. We will do this through quantitative customer satisfaction survey research to understand how we can maintain and improve the customer experience of our existing services.
We will use our state of the art User Experience Laboratory in Swansea to test new services with customers through usability testing and qualitative research to make sure that service design is centred around the user. We will also continue our extensive remote qualitative research to test prototypes of new services with users at locations across the country.
Our continued use of both quantitative and qualitative research methods helps us understand user needs of our existing and new services.
We will continue to assess ourselves against high standards for customer service by formal annual assessments against the independent Customer Service Excellence (CSE) standard. The CSE assessment is an independent view of the services that we provide to our customers, supporting our drive for continuous improvement in line with customers’ expectations.
We will continue to put our customers first, learning from customer feedback to improve the customer experience. This will further improve our services and help to meet our customers’ needs. We will work to resolve any issues for customers at the earliest opportunity.
We will continue to analyse trends and use satisfaction surveys to gather customer feedback. We value feedback and ensure that we learn lessons as part of our wider approach to continuous improvement.
Contact centre
Our award-winning, multi-channel contact centre staff provide a high-quality service in a way that suits our customers. Customers can contact us by phone, email, social media, and web chat. In 2022, we achieved the Customer Contact Association (CCA) accreditation for the 15th consecutive year obtaining the new CCA Global Standard Version 8, the first organisation to be successfully accredited against the new version.
During the coming year, we will continue to introduce new functions to further improve our customers’ experience when contacting us. Our improved voice recognition technology will help ensure customers can deal with the right person with the right skill set by telling us, in a few short words, the reason for their call.
Our customer feedback analytical tools will be used across all our telephony and digital channels, providing us with immediate customer feedback for us to effectively measure and continuously improve the services we provide.
Complaints
We will continue to put our customers first, learning from customer feedback and complaints to improve the customer experience. We are working closely across all business areas to identify and deliver first contact resolution for customers where possible, looking to resolve any issues at the earliest opportunity. This will further improve our services and help to meet our customers’ needs.
We will continue to analyse trends and use satisfaction surveys to gather customer feedback. We value feedback and ensure that lessons learned from complaints are part of our wider approach to continuous improvement.
Corporate customers
We work closely with stakeholders and corporate customers to ensure that their specific needs and requirements are understood. These include trade associations, motoring organisations and clubs, the police, medical charities and other public sector organisations.
The feedback and insight we receive from our industry user groups and charity forum is invaluable. We will continue to use this information to improve the services we deliver to these organisations and their members. We will also continue to keep stakeholders informed of developments in the agency through our quarterly newsletter. This close working and direct engagement will ensure DVLA services are aligned and well placed to meet the future needs of our stakeholders and corporate customers.
For more information about our services, visit our website.
2.2 A dynamic digital organisation
As a dynamic digital organisation, we will continue to develop and improve our services, making it simpler for our customers to carry out the transactions they need to. We will continue to develop our agile technology service platform, allowing us to respond more quickly to changing customer needs and technology.
The introduction of the Driver and Vehicles account, which is a new digital service on GOV.UK, will allow individuals to view their driver and vehicle records in one place, and also give them the option to chose to receive digital vehicle tax reminders rather than through the post. During the year we will expand the services available in the account, starting with the 10 year driving licence renewal service.
A reformed HGV Levy will be introduced from 1 August 2023 and we will ensure that the technical solution required to collect the levy will be in place by this date.
The government will remove the current vehicle tax exemption for electric cars, vans motorcycles and motorhomes by April 2025 which will mean DVLA will need extensive change to our existing digital vehicle licensing systems . We will identify the changes needed to ensure customers who own these vehicles can transact seamlessly via our range of channels.
We will introduce Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to additional vehicles transactions and then pause any wider rollout while we review its use and analyse the feasibility of any further rollout.
2.3 Data driven
Our priority is to protect the data we hold. Where it is lawful to do so, we will continue to share data with customers and stakeholders, ensuring that our systems, processes, procedures and policies remain compliant with data protection legislation.
We will enhance our data science function to continue to refine decision making and provide benefits for our customers and taxpayers.
Using DVLA data across government
We are engaged with the One Login for Government programme. This includes supporting the verification process by providing access to driving licence information to help prove identity for other government services.
We are also committed to supporting the following DfT commitments:
| Activity | Plans |
|---|---|
| Retained EU Law (REUL) | We will support DfT to deliver any required changes to legislation relating to the work of DVLA. |
| Driver Certificates of Professional Competence (DCPC) | We will continue to work with DfT in the reform of Driver Certificates of Professional Competence (DCPC). |
| Clean Air Zones (CAZ) | In our role as Service Owner of the CAZ service, we will continue to manage and implement operational and technical/policy changes as required. We will continue to support JAQU throughout the year. |
| Office of Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) | We will continue to support the Office of Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) grant schemes, namely the Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS), the EV ChargePoint grant schemes and Plug-in Vehicle Grants. |
2.4 A great place to work
We have developed our People Strategy which sets out what we need to focus on collectively as an organisation to continue to be a great place to work.
Health and wellbeing
We will continue to plan and deliver relevant health promotional work throughout 2023 to 2024 and support both physical and mental wellbeing in our activities and online campaigns.
The findings of our 2023 health screening campaign will help inform our work plan for the months ahead and we will raise awareness of conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cancers. We will also continue to encourage and increase staff use of our Employee Assistance Programme provider (Health Assured) and promote their services. The service will help staff deal with any personal and professional problems affecting their home or work life, health, and general wellbeing.
Development and learning
We have an ambitious learning and development plan which includes:
- creating and embedding a new learning management system to allow staff and managers access to all talent and learning activities
- developing a tailored corporate leadership programme
- using our apprenticeship offering to support upskilling, succession planning and attraction at all grades and align to a framework to ensure consistency, support and management of apprentices and those studying professional qualifications
Diversity and inclusion
As one of the largest employers in South Wales with more than 6,000 staff, as well as our office in Birmingham, our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) strategy 2021 to 2024 places ED&I at the heart of who we are. We continue to build on the good progress we have made in improving the diversity of our workforce, and we recognise the role we play in our local communities and the importance of having a workforce representative of our community.
We will continue to support volunteering opportunities, for example through our Employability Skills Programme (ESP), to reach underrepresented groups. We will ensure that we are inclusive in our approach and, where possible, remove barriers to recruitment, development, and promotion where they exist and further promote our internal Inclusion Ambassador scheme in Swansea and Birmingham.
Health and safety
We will continue to work across the whole organisation to ensure that we operate a safe and compliant working environment.
Sustainability
Greening Government Commitments
We continue to actively investigate opportunities to improve sustainability and make savings through enhancements to infrastructure and processes across the estate.
In doing so we will meet our objectives set out in the Greening Government Commitments (GGC) which sets out the actions UK government departments and their agencies will take to reduce their impacts on the environment.
3. Supporting the delivery of our plan
3.1 Financial
This is the second year of our Spending Review settlement which runs until the 2024-25 financial year. This enables DVLA to maintain operational delivery and improved resilience going forward and allows us to deliver our change plans over the period. This will help transform how we interact with our customers and it also ensures we can meet central government objectives, whilst continuing to get the best value for money for taxpayers.
Over recent years we have delivered significant efficiencies. DVLA became one of the first in government to move away from an outsourcing model, bringing our large IT contract in-house. Since then, we have built our internal digital capability, achieved service improvements and saved around £300 million between 2015 and 2020.
3.2 Commercial
DVLA provides commercial and procurement advice to maximise opportunities and secure value for money commercial arrangements. From 2023 to 2024, we expect to award or renew around 150 commercial arrangements. DVLA will continue to support GOV.UK Notify as their print and mail provider.
We will continue with our successful PR Sales activities, through our dedicated website and through online auctions.
During the year, we will provide commercial, HR and finance support to the migration of DVLA into a new Government Shared Services offering managed by HMRC, as part of the Unity programme.
4. Annexes
4.1 Annex A
| Financial forecast | Forecast outturn 2022-23 (£ million) | Business plan 2023-24 (£ million) |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory fee income | 432 | 443 |
| Personalised Registrations income | 150 | 135 |
| Other income | 34 | 41 |
| Total income | 616 | 619 |
| Staff costs | (221) | (227) |
| Agents’ fees | (81) | (85) |
| ICT charges | (59) | (61) |
| Accommodation | (31) | (38) |
| Consultancy and professional services | (10) | (11) |
| Postage and printing | (65) | (69) |
| Depreciation | (13) | (13) |
| Other costs | (22) | (22) |
| Total expenditure | (502) | (526) |
| Net operating surplus | 114 | 93 |
Income is displayed as a positive number and expenditure as a negative (in brackets).