Corporate report

Business plan 2014 to 2015

Updated 20 July 2016

0.1 Chief Executive’s foreword

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.

Since 1969, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has been getting safe drivers and vehicles on the road simply and easily. The final consolidation on to our sites in Swansea represents the completion of a project that began right at the start, one body for licensing, serving the whole country with pride and quality service.

The recent Reilly Review identified four key areas for DVLA to focus on to improve its service offering:

• DVLA must accelerate and expand its digital transformation
• DVLA should reduce the burden of its requirements on consumers and businesses and open up the way for others outside of government to deliver some of it services
• DVLA must have a governance and management structure fit for the new world in which it will operate
• DVLA’s value as a service provider of government should be optimised

With the Reilly Review, local office closures and significant progress towards a £100 million of savings complete, we have the opportunity to set out a new direction for DVLA, one which reflects our culture, potential and the objectives of government and the Department for Transport more clearly. One in which we are a clear centre of excellence in digital transactions. One in which we generate and grow income for government, fee payers and taxpayers, whether via cost saving, vehicle tax, or our own commercial enterprise. And one in which we seamlessly integrate physical and digital customer service to best meet customer needs effectively. So what does this mean for staff, the customer, and government? Our three year strategic plan is designed to set out a clear agenda for change. It covers four critical areas.

• Simpler Licensing: simplify the policy and technology landscape to improve customer service, give a better result for the taxpayer and fee payers and make it easier for safer drivers to get on the road
• Excellent Services: build seamless, lean, digital and physical services that exceed expectations and attract people to more cost-effective channels
• New Opportunities: use our assets to grow new revenue, efficiency and transactional opportunities across government
• The Best of DVLA: develop our capabilities as an important centre of excellence in licensing technology and identity assurance. Build a unique culture in Swansea, commercial, confident and focused on the customer

This Business Plan describes our immediate targets and milestones for the first year of our strategic plan.

Oliver Morley

DVLA Chief Executive and Accounting Officer March 2014

1. Who we are and what we do

1.1 Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport (DfT). The agency continues to lead the way in providing excellent digital services to customers. DVLA are world class in managing the collection of data holding over 45 million driver records and over 37 million vehicle records.

The agency continues to hold the Customer Service Excellence standard for its service to customers achieving its best result ever in 2013. Our award winning Contact Centre has recently been awarded ‘Best overall Contact Centre of the Year’, achieving the Customer Contact Association standard for the seventh year running.

DVLA collects over £6 billion a year in vehicle tax and its successful enforcement campaigns now limit tax evasion to no more than 1% a year.

DVLA’s personalised registration service is a huge success. Since its launch in 1989, the agency has raised £1.94 billion in revenue.

Our vision:

Simpler, Better, Safer

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.

1.2 How we manage our organisation

DVLA’s Chief Executive and Accounting Officer Oliver Morley chairs an Executive Board (EB) of 6 executive directors and 3 non-executive directors. For more information about our EB including DVLA governance and risk management visit our website.

1.3 The purpose of this Business Plan

This Business Plan details what we will deliver in 2014-15 including continued excellent service and improved digital services for our customers. Our longer term goal through our transformation programme is to become a centre of excellence for public services within government.

Our Business Plan is supported by DfT and the Cabinet Office and has been agreed by our sponsors, the Motoring Services Directorate of DfT.

2. How the agency is changing

2.1 Review of DVLA services

As part of the Motoring Services Strategy published in 2013, DfT committed to deliver more coherent and efficient motoring services. Agencies must continue to keep pace with customers’ needs and to deliver services in a way which is both convenient and cost effective, putting customers at the heart of the services they rely on.

During 2013 DVLA has worked to formulate a strategy for its business in line with the plans laid out in the wider departmental strategy. In October 2013 the strategic development of DVLA was formalised when DfT commissioned the Reilly Review charged with:

(reviewing) the DVLA’s current operation, service offering and change portfolio… (making) recommendations for a future business > strategy which will enable transformation, including to digital services and a step change in efficiency, whilst supporting economic > growth and meeting statutory obligations.

The recommendations from the review were published on 27 February 2014. The aim of the review was to ensure that DVLA plays a full role in the ambitions of the department and wider government. The four key themes within the review which gives the organisation a solid framework for its strategic direction for the period 2014-17 are:

• DVLA must accelerate and expand its digital transformation: This is the key to better services and significant reductions in cost. A significant number of DVLA services and transactions are still predominantly paper based. Customers want modern processes which allow increased flexibility in the way services are delivered. A modern information technology platform, developing the skills of staff and changing processes, together with better application development and implementation are essential.

• DVLA should reduce the burden of its requirements on consumers and businesses and open up the way for others outside of government to deliver some of its services: It is generally accepted that the activities DVLA currently carries out are ‘appropriate’, a greater focus on providing the existing services better is, however, needed. DVLA must ensure that customer needs are properly understood. It should consider whether non-core activities could be delivered better by or through others.

• DVLA must have a governance and management structure fit for the new world in which it will operate. The strategic direction and the change agenda already underway are not without risk. It is important that those risks are properly understood and managed. Good governance and a strong executive board with an investment in the right skills for the future are essential.

• DVLA’s value as a service provider of government should be optimised: As part of the government’s overall strategy for sharing functions and services across departmental and agency boundaries, DVLA should create a centre of digital excellence. In addition, DVLA has some non-core activities including state of the art but underutilised facilities which could have wider application. These include our print centre, currently running at 65% capacity and a contact centre which is recognised as an exemplar in the public sector.

The Business Plan for 2014-15 is the first year in a three year strategic plan which has been developed in light of the Reilly Review. DVLA’s Strategic Plan 2014-17 will be available on our website shortly. Details of how DVLA intends to achieve against its strategy within the year are set out in our plans for 2014-15, see section 3.

Each of the measures detail objectives which are supported by measure/s. The objectives and measures have been split into 4 broad categories which align with DfT requirements. The diagram below illustrates how the review themes and categories complement each other.

In addition to the performance measures tables the detailed Reilly Review, recommendations have been included at Annex C, together with a high level assessment of the progress planned against each recommendation within the year.

3. Our Plans for 2014-15

Reform	DVLA Measure	In 2014-15
1. Remove barriers for customers to encourage growth and reduce administrative burden (contributing to the government’s Red Tape Challenge)	1.1 Stop issuing the driving licence paper counterpart	Dec 2014
	1.2 Option for fleet operators not to hold a vehicle registration certificate (V5C)	Nov 2014
	1.3 Introduce Direct Debit option for paying vehicle excise duty	Oct 2014
	1.4 Stop issuing vehicle tax discs from	Oct 2014
2. Further digitise services we offer and drive user take-up	Launch initiatives/services that support the government digital strategy:
	2.1 View driving record – provide customer access to view their driver record online	June 2014
	2.2 Vehicle management – provide the customer with a digital channel to allow them to update their vehicle record	March 2015
	2.3 Personalised registration – provide the customer with a digital channel to manage their personalised registration/s	March 2015
	By March 2015 increase digital take-up of services:
	2.4 Vehicle licensing to	65%
	2.5 Driver licensing to	37%
3. Introduce new and accelerated ways of delivering excellent digital services	Strategic Transformation Programme
	3.1 Commercial transition – to introduce greater commercial flexibility in IT services procurement	Sept 2015
	3.2 Transform IT services – to build flexibility into the way that IT systems are built moving from large, single use systems that are difficult to tailor to an approach based more on component elements by:
	Develop tooling, platform integration, quality engineering	June 2014
	Platform data services	June 2014
	Environment provisioning and platform security	Sept 2014
	3.3 Deliver common products and utilities e.g. payment mechanisms and enquiry services which will enhance and simplify the customer experience
	Payment and customer authentication	Dec 2014
	Audit and management information solutions	Dec 2014
	3.4 Move to a new target operating model including capability gap analysis and solutions such as developing skills ‘in-house’	March 2015

Customer Service	DVLA Measure	In 2014-15
4. Seek and act on customer insight and feedback	4.1 Customer Service Excellence standard	Retain accreditation
5. Provide best in class contact centre	5.1 Customer Contact Association standard	Retain accreditation
6. Customer Satisfaction	6.1 Carry out a customer satisfaction survey to achieve or exceed	90% satisfaction
7. Manage customer complaints effectively	7.1 Reduce the proportion of formal complaints not resolved at first contact (against 2013-14)	10%
8. Comply with all standards relating to regulatory and official correspondence	8.1 Comply with Freedom of Information Act providing information within 20 working days	93%
	8.2 Provide answers to questions asked in Parliament within required timescales allowed	100%
	8.3 Provide draft replies to Ministerial correspondence within 7 working days	100%
	8.4 Reply to official correspondence passed on from Whitehall within 20 working days	80%

Corporate responsibility	DVLA Measure	In 2014-15
9. Hold data securely and use it to support the wider economy	9.1 Meet Government Security Accreditation requirements for all systems	Retain accreditation
	9.2 Seek Ministerial approval for a data sharing strategy in relation to access of information from DVLA’s driver and vehicle records	April 2014
10. Accuracy	10.1 Vehicles - to maintain accuracy so that the registered vehicle keeper can be traced from details held on our record in	95% of cases
	10.2 Drivers - to improve accuracy of the driver record we will:
	Develop a baseline for accuracy of the driver records	Sept 2014
	Deliver an improvement for accuracy of the driver record (against the Sept 2014 baseline)	March 2015
11. Pay our invoices promptly	11.1 Proportion paid in 5 working days	80%

Finance and Efficiency	DVLA Measure	In 2014-15
12. Manage our finances efficiently	12.1 Complete efficiency programme of sustainable efficiency savings each year compared to 2010-11 baseline	£100 million
	12.2 Keep to departmental expenditure limit (DEL)	No overspend
13. Give back to customers any savings we make by reducing fees	13.1 Subject to public consultation, introduce reduced fees for some services to enable reduced costs to the motorist (including those for first driving licences)	October 2014
14. Manage resources efficiently	14.1 Ensure by March 2015 agency workforce (full time equivalent) will number	4,880 FTEs*
	14.2 Ensure the average number of working days lost (full time equivalent) due to sickness is less that the DfT standard 7days lost at	6.8
15. Reduce impact on the environment	15.1 Meet the Greening Government Commitments by 2015 (from the 2009-10 baseline). We will:
	reduce emissions	25%
	reduce waste generated	25%

*DVLA remains committed to employing less than 4880 FTE by March 2015. During 2014-15, DVLA will also be examining its operating model in respect of the provision of its IT services. This may mean that certain roles transfer to direct DVLA employment as opposed to being provided by a 3rd party. This will only be done when this change enhances our strategic direction and efficiency as an organisation.

4. Reform

The Civil Service Reform Plan is aimed at raising standards across the whole of the civil service. The focus is on putting customers at the heart of the service executive agencies offer and the changes introduced. It is also about providing more digital services to customers, from a more skilled workforce, developed in an open and accountable way.

DfT plays a major part in the reform of the future shape of the civil service. As part of DVLA’s commitment to the Governments Digital Strategy to bring more services online, we will review further cost effective digital service channels. We will make our services easier to use by removing barriers using customer feedback to improve services.

To develop our services further we also need a more agile and competent workforce (see 7.2).

4.1 Remove barriers for customers

DVLA will remove a considerable administrative burden and introduce more choice for customers during the year. The introduction of a series of initiatives will generate significant internal and external efficiencies, boosting certain trade sectors and reducing the overall bureaucracy of DVLA services.

Abolition of the paper counterpart

DVLA’s online driver enquiry service will provide customers with a 24/7 online access to their driver entitlements. This service will replace the requirement for a paper counterpart.

What will this look/feel like for the customer?

This will reduce the burden to customers who currently spend around £8 million a year removing expired endorsements or replacing lost counterparts.

Option for fleet operators not to hold a vehicle registration certificate

This service will allow fleet companies to check the details of their vehicles online when they have chosen to suppress the issue of the vehicle registration certificate, saving them an estimated £3 million a year.

Introduction of direct debit for vehicle tax

Motorists will be able to pay their vehicle tax by direct debit annually, biannually or monthly, should they wish to do so.

What will this look/feel like for the customer?

Allowing motorists to pay by direct debit will help spread their vehicle tax costs and will support families and businesses in managing their finances. Motorists who currently buy a 6 month tax disc will pay a lower surcharge if they choose to pay monthly or bi-annual by direct debit payment.

Stop the issue of vehicle tax discs

A paper tax disc will no longer be issued and will no longer need to be displayed on a vehicle. The benefits of a paper tax disc have become redundant over time as the police now have easy access to DVLA’s vehicle register including Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system to help to enforce non-payment of vehicle tax.

What will this look/feel like for the customer?

Abolition of the tax disc will provide DVLA with administrative cost savings and provide annual savings of around £10 million to the taxpayer as a result of no longer producing, issuing and posting the tax disc. In addition it will remove an administrative inconvenience for millions of motorists.

5. Digital services

The Government’s Digital Strategy sets out how they will re-design their digital services so that they are more convenient and easier to use for the customer. DVLA is leading the way in government digital services, changing rapidly from what was once a paper based organisation to a digital organisation fit for the future.

DVLA’s online service take-up continues to grow along with customer expectations. During the year the agency will increase the services it provides. Customers who choose to use other service channels, will be encouraged to ‘go digital’ and will be assisted by intermediaries if/when required.

5.1 Further digitise services we offer and drive user take-up

View your driver record online:

Customers will be able to view their driving licence information online. The information will include the types of vehicles they are allowed to drive and any penalty points or motoring convictions. The service will allow customers to check their details are up to date and correct.

The service will also be used to allow sharing of driver data with those organisations permitted to receive it. The first users will be the insurance industry which will help to provide a more accurate insurance quote for the customer.

The introduction of this service will result in significant savings to the insurance industry and will offer customers in general ease of access and choice of channel. Increased use of secure on-line customer access will contribute to mitigating the risk of unauthorised data breach through transmission of sensitive information on paper through the postal service.

What will this look/feel like for the customer?

The service will provide customers with a 24/7 online facility to check their driving record. This gives our customers more flexibility and freedom to use DVLA services as and when they need to. The forecast for service use for the first year is around 4 million.

The service has been designed around what the customers want to see and how they want to view their information.

Update your vehicle record online or through an intermediary:

This service will allow private and commercial customers to manage all aspects of their vehicle record digitally and will provide them with the ability to:

• notify us that they have bought or sold a vehicle
• request a vehicle registration certificate
• change their address

The agency has forecast a saving of £2.4 million in 2014-15, as a result of introducing this service.

What will this look/feel like for the customer?

The service will provide customers with a 24/7 online service, providing more flexibility and freedom to notify DVLA of changes to their vehicle record as and when they need to.

Manage your personalised registration/s online:

This service will allow individual and commercial customers to manage their personalised registration/s online. This includes transferring their registration mark onto a retention certificate to assign to a vehicle at a later date or transfer it directly, whichever is most convenient. The introduction of this service will deliver savings of around £2.5 million in 2014-15.

What will this look/feel like for the customer?

This service will provide customers with a 24/7 online service, giving more flexibility and freedom to use DVLA’s personalised registrations services. Customer user testing will be undertaken to make sure that the service is simple, easy to use and meets customer needs.

Benefits for introducing these new services include:

• administrative savings
• reduction in burden
• reduction in paperwork for DVLA and the customer
• quicker turnaround times
• improved accuracy of the record

6. Sustainability

6.1 Reduce impact on the environment

The Government’s vision, to have the greenest ever operations and procurement, with greater transparency on performance, was set out in an action plan for driving sustainable operations and procurement across government (November 2010).

To make this vision a reality the government has committed to reducing its impact on the environment through:

• reducing emissions of greenhouse gases
• reducing waste
• reducing water consumption
• making procurement more sustainable

The Greening Government Commitments (GGC’s) are the government objectives for delivering sustainable operations and procurement. The GGC’s are designed to help government obtain better value for money and capitalise on the opportunities to make both financial and environmental savings.

By 2014-15 (from a 2009-10 baseline) we will:

• cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25% from the whole estate and business related transport
• reduce waste generated by 25%
• reduce water consumption

What will this look/feel like for the customer?

Most of the environmental improvements being made will not be visible to our customers; however they will see an overall reduction in the amount of paper they receive from the agency. Our environmental improvements will make our internal processes more efficient.

7. Supporting delivery of our plan

7.1 Introduce new and accelerated ways of hosting digital services

DVLA plans to deliver against the digital service commitments it has made. There are specific measures which deal with how the organisation will change its commercial approach moving away from large single supplier contracts to more flexible disaggregated contracts with greater use of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME).

This is complimented by the aspiration to move away from large single use IT systems to a components approach which allows much greater flexibility and has significant cost advantages. By using different delivery methodologies we are looking to reduce risk and realise benefits much earlier in projects through incremental building therefore developing usable products through the life of the project.

Developing common functionality across IT systems allows the organisation to consolidate providing both a single, easy to use process for customers to follow whilst benefiting from economies of scale.

DVLA plans to assess and then meet the skills gap that currently exists looking to use the resources it has both within the organisation and its surrounding area. We intend to develop ‘in-house’ capability in order to assist and reach ambitious IT service targets.

What will this look/feel like for the customer?

The customer and end user requirements will be placed at the forefront of all delivery. Delivery will become user led. This will enable the development of best in class digital services that have significant internal and external benefits. An example of this is the desire to develop IT systems using common ‘utilities’ such as a common payment engine, customer authentication and enquiry service.

The accelerated approach will impact positively on the cost of service delivery which will be represented in the future fee structure of the organisation with additional efficiency savings passed on to the customer.

These improvements will help the agency manage and reduce exposure to the risk of holding inaccurate or incomplete information on driver entitlement or vehicle keeper details.

7.2 Raise staff competence and capability to meet customer and agency needs

As the agency’s digital services are rolled out, the proportion of work linked to this as opposed to paper processing will increase and staff will need to develop digital skills. In addition, the use of intermediaries and digital service channels will require an increase of commercial and contract management skills.

During the year we will:

• build our capability to understand services from the customers perspective
• review regularly our skill and capability requirements and address the gaps identified across the agency
• put in place service managers, with appropriate skills, for every major service

What will this look/feel like for the customer?

Raising staff competence and capability will improve the quality of customer service and provide value for money through the introduction of new channels for transacting with the organisation.

7.3 Manage our finances efficiently

Financial management

DVLA is on track to deliver £100 million of efficiency savings by March 2015. Our running costs will be £100 million lower than our 2010-11 Business Plan.

Risk management

In step with colleagues across DfT we manage risk created by our change programmes in an increasingly agile way, identifying the risk and dealing with it immediately. We will continue to conduct regular reviews to identify and manage all potential risk across the agency whether relating to change or to maintaining routine service standards.

What will this look/feel like for the customer?

As a result of our efficiency savings we are reviewing the way we charge customers for our services. This will mean that customers can expect to see a reduction in the fees we charge for some of our services.

We have delivered significant efficiencies in recent years, which have led to a fee surplus. We will reduce fees to minimise this surplus in October 2014. As the agency continues to transform the way we deliver services we will drive out further efficiencies, which will be reflected in the ongoing review of our fee structure. Changing our fee structure after consultation will be a major step towards mitigating a risk the business faces from fee income instability. Furthermore we aim to introduce a fee structure in 2015-16 that will facilitate a break even position.

Through further improving risk management we will reduce the possibility of service delay or disruption experienced by customers. This approach will contribute to mitigating our risk of disruption to business continuity.

8. Annex A

Financial forecast	Forecast Outturn 2013 to 2014 £ million	Business plan 2014 to 2015 £ million
Statutory fee income	417.6	397.3
Commercial fee income	71.6	68.5
Other income	6.5	13.5
Total income	495.7	479.3
Staff costs	(160.3)	(140.8)
Contingent labour	(1.4)	(0.6)
Agents fees	(54.4)	(51.7)
ICT charges	(127.4)	(134.1)
Accommodation	(32.0)	(24.4)
Consultancy and professional services	(10.0)	(8.7)
Postage and printing	(49.1)	(49.7)
Depreciation	(35.5)	(35.8)
Other costs	(38.1)	(40.2)
Total expenditure	(508.2)	(486.0)
Net operating costs	(12.5)	(6.7)

	Forecast 2013 to 2014 £ million	Business plan 2014 to 2015 £ million
Resource DEL	152.9	128.8
Resource AME	(26.3)	(7.9)
Total resource and AME	126.6	120.9
Capital	13.2	15.3

Statement of financial position	Forecast Outturn 2013 to 2014 £ million	Business plan 2014 to 2015 £ million
Non-current assets
Property, plant and equipment	76.9	69.6
Intangible assets	77.0	63.7
Trade and other receivables due after more than one year	0.4	0.3
Total non-current assets	154.3	133.6
Current assets
Trade and other receivables	32.7	29.1
Cash and cash equivalents	20.8	21.5
Total current assets	53.5	50.6
Total assets	207.8	184.2
Current liabilities	(62.5)	(46.3)
Total assets less current liabilities	145.3	137.9
Non-current liabilities	(51.0)	(43.0)
Assets less liabilities	94.3	94.9

Taxpayers’ equity
General fund	45.8	46.4
Revaluation reserve	48.5	48.5
Total taxpayers’ equity	94.3	94.9

9. Annex B

Volume forecast
Transaction container	Transaction service	2014-15
Customer support and guidance	I want to check the progress of my application	2,178,000
	I want to know how to do something	13,039,186
Customer support and guidance total		15,217,186
Data sharing and enquiries	I want to enquire on my driver details	154,481
	I want to enquire on my vehicle details	30,785,835
	We want you to update our database	27,766,199
	You want to enquire on a drivers details	4,978,557
	You want to enquire on a vehicle details	3,696,431
Data sharing and enquiries total		67,381,503
Driver licensing	I want a provisional driving licence	967,215
	I want to add additional provisional entitlement to my driving licence	238,644
	I want to amend my driving licence details	2,415,945
	I want to exchange my GB driving licence	49,306
	I want to exchange my non-GB driving licence	94,929
	I want to notify DVLA of a death of a driver	153,906
	I want to notify the DVLA of a change to my medical status	18,418
	I want to renew my driving licence	4,305,443
	I want to replace my driving licence	1,079,809
	I want to surrender my driving licence	50,720
	You (DSA/Military) want to apply test pass details	1,533,207
	You want to add/amend/remove endorsement or fixed penalty details	2,031,359
Driver licensing total		12,938,900
Enforcement	We want to enforce vehicle legislation	708,317
Enforcement total		708,317
Personalised registration	I want to amend my personalised registration certificate details	178,455
	I want to assign a vehicle registration number to a vehicle	851,460
	I want to buy a personalised vehicle registration number	214,535
	I want to register an interest in a personalised vehicle registration number	64,150
	I want to retain my personalised registration number	218,784
	I want to transfer a vehicle registration number	311,234
Personalised registration total		1,838,618
Tachograph cards	I want a digital tachograph card	300,503
Tachograph cards total		300,503
Trade licensing	I want a trade licence	110,513
	I want to renew my trade licence	70,896
	I want to surrender my trade licence	1,500
Trade licensing total		182,909
Vehicle licensing	I want a replacement tax disc	71,999
	I want a vehicle tax refund	2,942,970
	I want to notify Statutory off Road Notification	3,556,873
	I want to amend my vehicle tax details	4,902
	I want to tax my vehicle	46,073,359
Vehicle licensing total		52,650,103
Vehicle registration	I want to amend my vehicle registration details	13,131,565
	I want to export a vehicle	23,614
	I want to notify DVLA that a vehicle has been destroyed or seriously damaged	1,524,091
	I want to notify DVLA that I have acquired or disposed of a vehicle	6,204,001
	I want to register a vehicle	2,917,001
	I want to register and amend fleet or dealership details	96,000
	I want to request a replacement vehicle registration certificate	201,663
Vehicle registration total		24,097,935
Total		175,315,974

10. Annex C

10.1 Reilly Review Recommendations

10.2 DVLA must accelerate and expand its digital transformation

Recommendation	How DVLA will meet the recommendation in 2014-15	Milestone
1. Produce and implement a whole business strategy.	DVLA to publish a 3 year business strategy to commence from April 2014	April 2014
2. Set out more clearly how we want to deliver online and digital services	Our 2014-15 Business Plan sets out the way in which DVLA intends to introduce new and accelerated ways of delivering digital services together with delivery dates for the first tranche of services	Business Plan Measures 2 and 3
3. Develop and publish an assisted digital strategy. Ensure that the move from paper to digital is not detrimental to any groups and find opportunities to work with trusted third parties	Work on DVLA’s assisted digital strategy will commence in 2014-15 aligned to the wider Government Digital Services strategy. As part of the review DVLA will assess the contracts and mechanisms already in place, to establish if they can be used to facilitate an assisted digital service provision. DVLA call centre will initiate a study to investigate the tools that exist in the marketplace that can enable e.g. web-chat services	Sept 2014
4. Develop a consistent approach to self- service, digital casework tracking and digital updates and reminders across all business areas	Digital tracking and management information requirements will be built into the initial scoping phases of all driver and vehicle services as standard. By the end of the year DVLA will have a common approach for customer notification and progress tracking based on a consistent set of principles	March 2015
5. Bring in a modern IT platform and new approaches to application development and implementation	Our 2014-15 Business Plan sets out plans for the transformation of the DVLA IT estate and development approaches. The IT transformation framework will be aligned to Government Digital Services principles and ‘Agile’ methodologies	Business Plan Measure 3
6. Stop issuing vehicle tax discs	Our 2014-15 Business Plan gives a commitment to stop issuing vehicle tax discs from October 2014	Business Plan Measure 1.4
7. Deliver simpler, faster, secure, accurate and bulk transactions for key customers such as the motor trade, fleet operators and hire companies	Our 2014-15 Business Plan refers to several measures that will assist businesses by reducing internal processing specifically making more information available by introducing the ability to manage records online and the suppression of vehicle registration certificates for fleets. This is the start of a wider holistic process and is linked to the broader DVLA objective to review how it segments customers and meets individual customer ‘type’ requirements	Business Plan Measures 1.2 and 2.2

10.3 Reduce burden of requirements on customers and open up the way for the private sector to deliver some services

Recommendation	How DVLA will meet the recommendation in 2014-15	Milestone
8. Drivers Medical reform - clear strategic approach by building on the digital transformation	DVLA plans to introduce a holistic approach to resolving issues with drivers medical services. A strategy consistent with the overall driver services direction will be developed which will set a vision and end states for drivers medical services. Key deliverables over a 24 month period commencing in 2014-15 are:	March 2015
	reducing third party specialist service provider costs and time frames
	introducing a digital service channel to speed up the process for the customer
	introducing a rules engine to remove further, simpler cases from the casework workload
	focussing attention on high priority/biggest impact cases
	This strategy will be articulated formally during 2014-15. Following the discovery work DVLA will produce a plan of action over the 24 months which will include a consultation on age based renewals. This will commence in 2015-16 i.e. following the introduction of the above developments
9. Drivers Medical reform - enabling drivers to voluntarily give up their entitlement to drive, easily and at low cost.	See the response to recommendation 8	March 2015
10. Drivers Medical reform - digital transactions and automated decision making enabling light touch assessment and decision approach for simple cases	See the response to recommendation 8	March 2015
11. Drivers Medical reform - widening options on driver licensing decisions (extended licensing periods)	DVLA will review the options, impacts and potential benefits to the customer of extending licensing periods in certain circumstances. This will begin with a public consultation due to be published in Quarter 1 2014-15 to gather opinion on extending short term licensing periods from 3 and 5 years to 10 years	March 2015
12. Drivers Medical reform - separate arrangements for commercial customers where business and livelihoods are at stake.	See the response to recommendation 8	March 2015
13. Drivers Medical reform -provide better and more accessible online information and better process design to eliminate sticking points	System re-design is a key component of the strategy as referred to in recommendation 8	March 2015
14. Drivers Medical reform - make it easier for the public to be safe and comply by taking a strategic approach to deliver a high quality, fast, low cost service for drivers with medical conditions	See the response to recommendation 8	March 2015
15. Consider integrated driver and vehicle data where required on customer portals to give a single customer view.	User requirements and customer needs will be fed into the development cycle, ensuring a consistent approach is adopted for data capture and possible future data sharing. A universal approach will facilitate any move to a single customer portal in the future. Integration of data is not essential if it does not impede upon the customer experience. As with recommendation 4, this recommendation will become a general ‘principle’ of service development and will be considered in light of Data Protection legislation	March 2015
16. DVLA should consider whether the end to end process of vehicle tax collection could be more economically carried out by a third party provider	DVLA will produce a cost benefit analysis assessing the value for money offered together with potential options for vehicle tax collection to be carried out by third parties. This report will be presented to the Vehicle Excise Duty Governance Committee, for direction following the delivery and initial assessment of the impacts of the abolition of the tax disc and introduction of direct debit as a payment option	March 2015
17. Enable easier access and better understanding of information available to customers	Review the information services offered to customers in light of wider government strategies and legislative parameters, as part of a more general analysis of the self service approach. This is linked to recommendations 3 and 4	December 2014

10.4 DVLA’s value as a service provider for government should be optimised

Recommendation	How DVLA will meet the recommendation in 2014-15	Milestone
18. Use our assets to grow new revenue, efficiency and transactional opportunities across government	Once appointed, the new DVLA Commercial Director will be tasked with looking at how DVLA assets can be used to their full potential. Models will continue to be produced to plan out the scale of underutilised capacity in support of this activity. The Director will be tasked with reviewing the organisation as a whole with particular focus on:	Sept 2014
	print services and sales growth
	personalised registrations
	work for other government departments
	call centre capabilities
19. The Department for Transport (DfT) should consider further rationalisation of the functions across its agencies, to focus skills, deliver service improvements and promote further efficiency through printing and mailing services and customer contact centre.	DVLA will work with DfT throughout the year to develop a strategy	Dec 2014
20. DfT should consider its contribution to this centre following rationalisation by placing its digital services and those required by its other agencies in the same location	DVLA will work with DfT throughout the year to reach a suitable approach	Dec 2014
21. DVLA working with DfT should simplify the regulatory and policy framework which underpins its work, improve efficiency and reduce the burden on its customers	DVLA will work with DfT to identify opportunities to simplify the regulatory structure and keep this under review	Dec 2014
22. Build capabilities as a centre of excellence in licensing and Information architecture	DVLA will develop a strategy for using local resources, people and educational facilities e.g. TechHub Swansea and tools such as apprenticeships and fast stream programmes, to acquire the necessary skills to meet its ongoing strategic objectives. This is an ongoing objective commencing in 2014-5	Ongoing
23. Clear plan for the recruitment and retention of key skills with an emphasis on retraining those existing staff made surplus as a result of the move to digital and local apprenticeships	See the response to recommendation 22. In addition to the plan to look to the local community, there is latent potential within the existing workforce	Ongoing
24. Work with local education establishments and universities and form alliances with private sector organisations, to stimulate the supply side in skills and opportunities. The requirements of DVLA should be oriented to support local small and medium sized businesses	DVLA will continue to build links with the local community and key businesses within the area. This will ensure that DVLA’s approach is consistent and compatible with the economic well being of the region	Ongoing
25. Move from headcount plus lump sum approach, to single annual efficiency target of 30% based on net expenditure for the 3 year period	DVLA will hit its efficiency target of £100m against operating expenditure during 2014-15. The total efficiency delivered during the year will be a 7% reduction against the agreed baseline	7% by March 2015
26. Build high performance culture and management	See the response to recommendation 22	Ongoing
27. Focus on skills acquisition in Swansea	See the response to recommendation 22	Ongoing