The Department and the DVLA have not taken a strategic approach to maintaining and improving the infrastructure, estate and processes that the DVLA’s performance depends on. The Department has taken a hands-off approach to the DVLA, failing to ensure that its services are periodically reviewed and improved through timely adoption of modern working practices and up-to- date technology. Consequently, the driving licence application process has become inefficient through outmoded working practices, and it is not resilient to external shocks. We recognise that the DVLA has improved and modernised some of its services, for example paying road tax is now an easy and efficient process for vehicle owners. However, the pandemic exposed weaknesses in some of the DVLA’s other 8 Driving licence backlogs at the DVLA operations. Currently, most staff working on driving licences cannot work remotely because of data security risks and underlying technological challenges, which the DVLA said cannot be easily remedied. The DVLA acknowledges that while almost all its services are digitised, applications for vocational licences and applications involving complex medical decisions are not, and its plans for digitisation will take 10 years. The DVLA argues that it is now a much nimbler organisation after changes introduced during the pandemic, but we are unconvinced that it is ready for any future crises. Recommendation: The Department and the DVLA should work together to set out, by the end of 2023, a strategy for how the DVLA will re-engineer and modernise the driving licence process, over the next 3 to 5 years. Its strategy should address the extent to which its long-term digital transformation plan will make its IT infrastructure adequately resilient and if there is more it could do to enable secure remote working should another crisis occur. Driving licence backlogs at the DVLA 9 1 The DVLA’s customer service