Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency business plan, 2024 to 2025
Published 18 December 2024
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Non-Executive Chair and Chief Executives’ foreword
We are proud to present this 2024 to 2025 business plan. This year will form the final year of our strategic plan to 2025 and will bring us closer to our vision to 2030. Our vision and strategy set out what we must do to make transport safer, greener, and healthier, and it guides much of this business plan. We will continue to review how we are progressing against our plans to ensure they remain relevant and reflect wider government priorities as appropriate.
In 2023 to 2024, we continued to respond to the challenges to our services by taking extraordinary measures to increase availability in the booking system for those waiting for a car practical driving test. As a result, we were able to deliver an additional 145,000 car tests, further reducing waiting times nationally for our customers. This year we will progress a number of measures designed to ensure learner drivers are ready for their test to increase pass rates and reduce waiting times.
Our customers are at the heart of what we do, and we continue our work to ensure we are a service-led organisation by creating a consistent and effective way to manage all our services in DVSA. We will focus on the end-to-end journeys our customers take as they access our services to ensure we continue to provide what they need.
In support of the Civil Service People Plan, we will continue to invest in our people, making DVSA more inclusive and a great place to work. We are committed to recruiting and retaining the talent and skills we need to deliver our strategy. We will continue to support our people through our leading-edge approach to wellbeing.
During this year we will also work with the Public Bodies Review team who are carrying out a routine review of our agency’s effectiveness and efficiency. These independent reviews provide assurance that arm’s length bodies, such as DVSA, are productive and provide value for money for the taxpayer.
We will continue to follow our ambitious plan to generate further efficiency savings. This means investing in modernising our digital systems and delivering better more efficient services to our customers.
With robust plans and appropriate levels of governance in place, we are confident that 2024 to 2025 will be a year of performing well against our strategy, continuing to support our people and delivering excellent services for our customers.
Nick Bitel
DVSA Non-Executive Chair
Loveday Ryder
DVSA Chief Executive
Executive summary
This year, as we enter the final year of our strategic plan to 2025, we have put some challenging targets in place. Road safety is always at the forefront of what we do. We also need to provide a high level of service to all our customers.
While we further reduce car practical waiting times, we will also turn our focus to recovering services that were affected by the driver testing measures that we put in place to address increased demand. To achieve an additional 145,000 tests in 2023/24, we had to mobilise colleagues from various areas of the business to increase our test capacity. The effect of this has been felt across the agency and, this year, we will look to recover these affected areas and return the agency to a ‘business as usual’ operating model.
This year we are taking several steps to ensure learner drivers are ready for their test. These measures are aimed at increasing the pass rate and in turn reducing wait times as fewer learners need to retake tests.
Our approach to creating a fully service-led organisation will continue in 2024/25. We have developed service plans across the agency, which are being used with great success. We will focus on using customer feedback to ensure that we continue to create improvements to services, driven by what our customers need.
We are also diversifying our workforce, aiming to reflect better the communities we serve. We are increasing the number of apprentices we have, recognising the importance of growing talent and investing in skills development.
Our projected income for the year is £435,904,000 with a total expenditure of £474,442,000.
DVSA is currently pursuing a fees strategy to ensure income from fees covers the full cost of services.
Some of our enforcement activities are funded by DfT, where fees do not enable recovery of the costs of delivering the service.
Each section of the business plan will begin with the measures for that area, followed by supporting narrative to explain what is driving those measures and how we aim to achieve them.
Who we are and what we do
DVSA is an executive agency of the Department for Transport (DfT) responsible for:
- carrying out theory tests and driving tests for people who want to drive cars, motorcycles, heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), buses and coaches, and specialist vehicles
- approving people to be driving instructors and motorcycle trainers
- approving training courses for qualified drivers, such as Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) courses for HGV, bus and coach drivers, and drink-drive rehabilitation courses
- approving MOT centres, people to be MOT testers, and testing HGVs, buses and coaches
- checking commercial drivers and vehicles, remotely and at the roadside, to make sure they follow safety rules
- monitoring recalls of vehicles to make sure that manufacturers fix problems
- licensing and monitoring companies who operate goods vehicles, buses and coaches on behalf of the Traffic Commissioners
We are funded chiefly through the fees we charge for our services and employ about 4,600 people. Our purpose in all this is to keep Britain moving, safely and sustainably. In 2023 we published our vision to 2030 and our strategic plan to 2025. We refer to these throughout this plan to show how we will contribute to:
- making roads safer
- improving services for our customers
- making road transport greener and healthier
- harnessing the potential of technology and data
- growing and levelling up the economy
To realise our ambitions, we will need the help of all our partners. We work closely with these industries:
- driver and rider training
- MOT
- road haulage and passenger transport
- vehicle manufacturing
And, among others, we work with these government colleagues:
- the Traffic Commissioners for Great Britain and the Transport Regulation Unit in Northern Ireland – they license and regulate those operating HGVs, buses and coaches
- Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) – they’re responsible for vehicle tax, vehicle registration and for issuing driving licences
- the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) – they’re responsible for testing and certifying new vehicles for use on UK roads, to international standards
- the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) – they’re shaping the safe and secure introduction of connected and self-driving vehicles
- National Highways – they manage England’s motorways and major A roads
- Health and Safety Executive – they regulate workplaces, plants and equipment
- Active Travel England – they promote cycling and walking, and better designed street environments
- Environment Agency – they regulate major industry and waste
- police – they work with us on intelligence and enforcement operations
Governance
Our Chief Executive, Loveday Ryder, leads the agency with the support of DVSA directing board, committees, and groups. The agency’s governance arrangements reflect best practice and give confidence that we use our resources efficiently, embedding and using functional standards to support continuous improvement within the agency and to meet our strategic priorities.
Management and control of our risks
Risk management is an integral part of the agency’s work, from how we manage our programmes, services, and our finances, to how we develop our policies and work with the DfT family.
The agency’s Risk Management Framework and Risk Appetite Statements are reviewed and refreshed on an annual basis by the directing board.
The agency is subject to internal and external audits, which ensure that our processes and procedures are robust.
Regular assurance, good governance, and efficiency are central to the government’s public bodies transformation programme. For DVSA, this means we are undergoing a Cabinet Office Public Body Review this year. We are working with DfT and the review team to support this process and implement any recommendations made.
How the agency is changing
Our vision to 2030, published in March 2023 alongside our strategic plan to 2025, sets out what we must do to make transport safer, greener and healthier. It demonstrates our drive for more efficient services that meet the needs of our customers and our commitment to help to grow and level up the economy. It sets out our determination to collaborate with partners within government and industry to achieve better results. It explains how we want to make DVSA an even better place to work, to attract and retain the skilled and talented people we need to succeed and to continue to support the government’s ambitions for civil service reform. This business plan covers the final year of that strategic plan.
Service delivery
At DVSA we help you stay safe on Great Britain’s roads by:
- helping you through a lifetime of safe and sustainable journeys
- helping you keep your vehicle safe to drive
- protecting you from unsafe drivers and vehicles
We need to make sure our services are focussed on recognising the challenges that we face and addressing those challenges. We will do this by continuing to transform our services to make them more efficient, simpler to use and to provide the outcomes that make the biggest difference to society.
We will inform and educate both the public and businesses in road safety and take enforcement action, focusing on the seriously and serially non-compliant.
Our customers are at the heart of what we do. Over the next year we will continue to improve our services, based on feedback, and to reduce waiting times and satisfaction levels in a climate of increased demand.
Future vehicle technology
DVSA is supporting DfT’s Future of Transport programme. We will focus on building capacity and capabilities to equip the agency to fulfil its future in-use regulation role for automated vehicles. We will also help prepare our services for changes that will be required for self-driving vehicles in the future. In particular, we will support work on the Automated Vehicles Bill and the detail of how that will be implemented.
DVSA will also continue to support autonomous vehicle trials as they progress and develop. We will ensure that they operate safely, and that lessons learnt from them are fed into future policies and procedures.
Plan for 2024 to 2025
Helping you through a lifetime of safe and sustainable journeys
| Performance measure | Target for 2024 to 2025 |
|---|---|
| Theory test candidates waiting times average | 4 weeks or less |
| Theory test candidates satisfied with the service they receive from DVSA | 85% |
| We will work to provide as many car practical tests as possible by providing 1.95 million car practical tests | By March 2025 |
| We will work to provide as many car practical tests as possible by achieving a national car practical driving test waiting time of 7 weeks or fewer | By December 2025 |
| Car practical driving test candidates (overall) satisfied with the service they receive from DVSA | 75% |
| Car practical driving test candidates who passed their test satisfied with the service they receive from DVSA | 85% |
| Approved driving instructor satisfaction with the service they receive from DVSA | 60% |
| Vocational practical test waiting times 3 weeks or less | By March 2025 |
| Vocational practical test candidates satisfied with the service they receive from DVSA | 80% |
| Motorcycle practical test waiting times 6 weeks or less | By March 2025 |
| Motorcycle practical test candidates satisfied with the service they receive from DVSA | 80% |
Theory test service
During 2024/25, we will continue to deliver incremental improvements to the theory test service in response to feedback from internal and external users. We will also explore whether a future delivery model could incorporate remote invigilation, where a candidate does not need to attend a theory test centre, to understand if advances in technology mitigate previous concerns around fraud, security of content and consistency of test experience. In line with these improvements and when the legislative opportunity arises, we will introduce digital pass certificates to replace the current paper based approach.
Car practical test waiting times
During the second half of 2023/24 we increased the number of tests available in the booking system, resulting in around 128,000 car tests being available nationally at any one time. We have delivered around 145,000 additional car tests by using all our eligible people, where necessary bringing them back from other duties across the organisation. Throughout this period, we experienced 20% higher demand than forecast for the practical car driving test. This extra demand placed additional pressure on our services and our ability to return waiting times to the level expected by our customers. We expect this demand to continue to exceed our current capacity, we continue to work hard to provide as many practical driving test appointments as possible at all test centres. This might mean that waiting times remain higher than we would like as we work on delivering the action to resolve the issue.
We will continue to run our flagship behavioural change campaign, Ready to Pass? as a no/low cost campaign. Early indications show that the campaign has been effective at helping candidates be ready to pass before they take their driving test. We will also look to build and improve on our existing relationships with our partners and develop new ones to help extend the reach of the campaign into schools, colleges, and community groups. Ensuring our customers are ready to pass helps us further reduce waiting times by reducing the number of customers who need to retake their test.
We are exploring with DVLA’s Medical Panel how the eyesight test is administered during a driving test. The existing process has been in place for many years, and we will consider how the eyesight test can be delivered to give greater flexibility about when the driving test is conducted and in different levels of light.
We are also looking at ways we can encourage learner drivers to be better prepared when they take their driving test and reduce the number of lost driving test appointments. One area we are exploring is making changes to the notice period for cancelling a car practical driving test without losing their fee. This was something we consulted on in 2022.
Driver services
Our work on developing and improving the practical driving test will continue with specific focus on introducing the use of advanced driver assisted systems (ADAS) as a requirement of the test. We will also develop plans to increase the amount of independent driving, a key aspect of the practical test in ensuring new drivers can drive without intervention or prompts from their instructor or examiner.
New drivers still face increased risks compared to other experienced drivers and we will work with others to develop improved interventions for new drivers, with this in mind we will review and refresh our approach to Pass Plus.
In 2023/24, we introduced advanced ‘bot’ protection and a number of additional controls, and terms and conditions, aimed to protect our car practical test booking system from bots enabling test slots to be swapped or re-sold at a profit.
In 2024/25, we will continue this work, focusing on additional control measures as needed. This will enable us to continue to enforce and investigate fraud on our systems and to help ensure our customers’ data is not open to misuse or exploitation by third parties.
We will look to introduce digital pass certificates for our various tests. Replacing the current paper based approach when the legislative opportunity arises will improve customer experience and will mean licences can be issued more efficiently and securely.
In parallel, we will begin the process of replacing our booking system. The system has many uses including:
- booking and scheduling of all practical driving and riding tests
- recording mandatory training taken by professional lorry and bus drivers
- administering the register of approved driving instructors (ADIs) and the compulsory basic training (CBT) scheme for novice motorcyclists
We will start by replacing the test booking and scheduling service. This will allow us better to capture and meet our customers’ requirements, including those with additional needs. We will update the way we schedule tests using modern, flexible technology that makes better use of examiners’ time and reduces manual processes.
Our driving test routes need to ensure they include several scenarios, to ensure we can check those who pass their test are able to drive safely on a variety of roads. This includes assessment of driving on higher speed routes. To ensure the integrity of the test in the future, we will consider whether we can move away from a fixed estate of driving test centres to more flexible locations. Further improvements may include exploring whether test route design can be automated, providing greater flexibility and consistency to more static routes and increase the focus on the learner’s ability to drive independently on any road.
We are working with DfT to deliver legislation on policy areas impacted by Assimilated Law (formerly referred to as Retained EU law). Assimilated Law was a type of domestic law, created by the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and which came into effect at the end of the UK’s post-Brexit transition period. Further information on the legislation and a list of retained EU laws/assimilated law can be found on the retained EU law and assimilated law dashboard.
Approved driving instructors (ADIs)
Our priority this year will be to focus on Part 2 and Part 3 tests for ADIs, alongside standards checks, aiming to address the backlogs caused by redeploying people with an in-date warrant card into practical driving tests, as part of our driver testing measures.
We will also focus on improving training and encourage and support the continual professional development of ADIs.
Survey and consultation response data shows that the vast majority of ADIs already display their certificate at test. We are working with industry representatives to understand why some do not comply and what we can do to encourage higher rates of display. If a certificate is displayed, we can link the test to the relevant instructor. This data ensures we can engage with individual ADIs effectively on their performance and identify any support or training interventions to help improve standards. We will continue our efforts to focus on quality and on improving the way we use data to drive positive change and to support ADIs. We will work with industry to consider how the publication of consumer data can help trainers focus on quality and standards.
Vocational services
We will introduce changes to increase flexibility in how drivers work towards achieving their Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (Driver CPC) by introducing a new National Driver CPC qualification for drivers wanting to drive in the UK only. This will include reducing the minimum duration of a course, separating the online and classroom elements of the course, and making it easier for professional drivers to return to work.
We will develop our vocational training and testing strategy, working closely with industry to develop a strategy to review and improve the training and testing of vocational drivers.
During 2024/25, we will continue to support development and implementation of interventions to ease driver shortages across the bus, coach, and HGV sectors, such as the DfE-sponsored boot camps.
We will also reinstate our customer account manager function to support both vocational and motorcycle training businesses in understanding their business needs and securing the tests that they require.
Making motorcycling safer
DVSA chairs the Motorcycle Strategic Focus Group, which considers the wider issues affecting motorcyclists, such as safety technology and future connectivity advances and how we embed motorcycling more effectively in our future polices and road safety strategies.
We will discuss ideas for reform of the existing motorcycle testing requirements and the wider licensing regime for motorcycles and other powered light vehicles with stakeholders where these potential changes do not compromise safety standards.
We will also start development to improve:
- motorcycle instructor qualification and quality assurance
- compulsory basic training
- trainer booking services
We will work with trainers and use insight from enforcement and other sources to provide modern and flexible motorcycle training.
Helping you keep your vehicle safe to drive
| Performance measure | Target for 2024 to 2025 |
|---|---|
| Authorised testing facilities (ATFs) satisfied with the service they receive from DVSA | 85% |
| Operators satisfied with the service they receive from DVSA | 80% |
| Develop and implement a new digital way for authorised testing facilities and other third-party providers to apply for and manage their requests for assessors to carry out testing at their premises | By March 2025 |
| Determine a baseline for approvals’ customer satisfaction through our surveys, enabling us to track improvements | By March 2025 |
| Simplify and improve our online application process for individual vehicle approval (IVA) and motorcycle single vehicle approval (MSVA) examinations and allow users to make payments and be able to book examinations online in the future | By March 2025 |
| MOT centres satisfied with the service they receive from DVSA | 85% |
MOT services
During 2024/25 we will continue to work with DfT and industry on improvements and innovation within MOT, following the results of the consultation and wider call for evidence. This will include collaboration with the connected and automated mobility services (CAMS) project to evolve the MOT to meet the needs of connected and autonomous vehicles.
We will work with industry to help develop any changes to the MOT and ensure that there is a clear path to enable any investment needed. This includes investment in connected test equipment to make sure tests meet standards.
Ongoing improvements in the MOT service include:
- piloting different ways of helping testers get support during the test, continuing to explore whether the use of artificial intelligence (AI) could be beneficial in this area
- continuing to streamline the approach to identify and deal with potentially fraudulent tests, building on image capture trials, and exploring capturing data from vehicles
- continuing to improve how we use technology and automation in the test, making the MOT slicker and providing better information for customers
We will explore how to improve processes assisting customers who are applying to become new testers and helping test stations by digitalising the application process.
Vehicle approvals
In 2024/25, we will start to transform the end-to-end service for our colleagues and customers by simplifying processes and carrying out vehicle inspections at more convenient locations.
Key areas of improvement will include:
- online digital services – simplified and intuitive application, payment and booking processes
- inspection sites – introduction of well-located third-party sites (vehicle examination facilities)
- inspection and equipment – reduce and simplify the equipment needed to test and methods of inspection
Commercial vehicle testing
We will improve our digital services to make it easier for authorised testing facilities (ATFs) to request resources and communicate with us through our new MyVT online service.
We aim to move towards a model where testing days and hours are agreed with ATFs and changed by exception, rather than the quarterly booking process. This will allow more flexibility and give longer term certainty for ATFs to take bookings.
New technology
In 2024/25, we will continue our work on whether we should include some driver assist systems in vehicle testing ahead of our work on self-driving vehicles. This could be through accessing vehicle data during the test, including braking performance – to determine that those driver assist systems are working.
Continuing our digital journey – test certificates and vehicle plates
From the start of 2024/25 we will be moving to a digital-first approach for annual test certificates on heavy vehicles. The MOT history service contains the digital test record for every vehicle. It provides the most up to date and secure way to check the MOT history. Using this service also reduces the need for paper, providing environmental benefits.
In 2024/25 we will also be making ministry plates more easily available online, linked to the vehicle/trailer record on the MOT history service, including a self-print facility. We will be working with DfT on further simplification by potentially removing the requirement physically to affix the ministry plate to the vehicle or trailer. Operators, drivers and enforcement bodies will be able to view a digital copy of the issued plates online, as part of the vehicle record.
Protecting you from unsafe drivers and vehicles
| Performance measure | Target for 2024 to 2025 |
|---|---|
| Risk-based targeted approach to detect serious roadworthiness defects and traffic offences | 28,000 |
| Maintain the number of MOT cases where we act upon the most serious fraud, dishonesty and negligence and increase by 10% the number of cases laid to court for prosecution from these investigations | From the 2022 to 2023 baseline |
| In support of the Traffic Commissioners’ strategic objectives, we will continue our commitment to process HGV operator licence applications maintaining the target below 35 working days | By March 2025 |
Commercial vehicle enforcement
As part of our enforcement transformation programme, we are looking to deliver new equipment to our enforcement teams. This equipment includes:
- digital weigh pads / laser gradient meters – which will enable us to detect and prosecute the most seriously overloaded light goods vehicles (LGVs)
- under-vehicle inspection robots – allowing us to inspect lower slung vehicles such as public service vehicles (PSVs) and car transporters
We will continue to develop the sanctions that are available for dealing with non-compliant commercial vehicles – in particular those that persistently offend. Development will focus in areas where our current sanctions are less effective.
We are developing a new Interconnection of National Registers (INR) service as part of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement signed by the UK and EU. The service will deliver connectivity to the European Register of Road Transport Undertakings (ERRU). ERRU is an electronic system that allows member states to exchange information on road transport companies on aspects such as the good repute of transport managers, the validity of community licences and on infringements committed by transport undertakings in a foreign territory.
Using technology to identify non-compliance
During 2024/25, we will continue our trial of a new process introducing ‘enforcement from the record’, using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) data to identify and target non-compliance. We will also implement sanctions currently available through remote intervention and build an evidence base to inform potential future legislative changes.
This supports our strategy of engaging with customers, tackling non-compliant behaviour and ensuring our frontline teams are directed to any who are found to be seriously and serially non-compliant.
We will be further refining the machine learning and data analysis we use to target MOT garages who choose not to do the right things and, where appropriate, prosecuting them.
We will continue to develop our use of the National ANPR Service (NAS), using mapping software to enable identification of target vehicles and drivers. This will allow us to direct and guide enforcement teams to intercept the most seriously and serially non-compliant.
Driver enforcement
During this year we will build our capacity to deliver a step change in how we enforce driving test fraud. This includes:
- increasing investigations and prosecutions of those committing fraud, including both impersonators and those seeking to benefit from fraud
- focus on working to cut off the suppliers of the fraud service
- increase the deterrent value of the work we do by delivering a targeted ‘no cost/low cost’ awareness campaign, directed at potential customers and perpetrators of this type of fraud
- work collaboratively with partner agencies to combat the overall fraud associated with the driving test – this will create a robust approach to ensure all intelligence and data is used, across all services, to identify and prosecute the perpetrators of this type of fraud
- seeking to introduce technology-assisted identity confirmation, to provide a greater deterrent and increase the likelihood of identification and stopping fraudulent tests
Licensing and compliance
The teams providing the administrative support to the Traffic Commissioners (TCs) have moved to a new operating model. The new model will provide a more consistent and resilient approach with better trained colleagues, all contributing to improving the service provision to the TCs and industry. Both goods and public service vehicle applications targets will continue to be met and, with the introduction of the new model, the ability to deliver against all service led targets will be enhanced.
A system that enables the digitalisation of evidence bundles for public inquiries is being rolled-out across the Office of the Traffic Commissioner (OTC). This technology provides customer-focussed capabilities and benefits. For example, an operator attending a TC public inquiry will now benefit from the availability of a real time, comprehensive, digital package that no longer relies on a paper trail.
To support this, we will be equipping all public inquiry hearing rooms with enhanced digital capability. This will enable more hearings to be prepared and conducted in a digital environment, where considered appropriate by the presiding commissioner.
Market surveillance
Our market surveillance unit will continue to improve compliance across the automotive after-market sector, with continued focus on emissions and dealing with ‘defeat’ devices, publicising successful prosecutions and promoting awareness to encourage compliance.
Casework management
We have successfully rolled out our casework management system, which has moved from the legacy system on to Microsoft Dynamics. We will continue to develop this system using feedback from our users, to enhance the system’s functionality, improving efficiency and user experience.
We will continue to build and enhance our capability to deliver investigations into high risk and complex cases, across all schemes, considering all sanctions available to us, providing a real deterrent for those considering risking road safety for their own gain.
Earned Recognition
We will promote and raise awareness of the Earned Recognition (ER) scheme to combined authority mayors and local authorities. By encouraging the adoption of ER across their own fleets of lorry, bus and coaches and using ER standards to select commercial vehicle operator contracts (HGV and PSV) this will champion a greater awareness of the road safety benefits across all our major cities.
We will continue to deliver and evaluate our trial of Road to Earned Recognition. This provides new operators with an opportunity to establish their businesses with safety focussed systems supported by the ER team, with the same standards and reporting principles.
Our customers
| Performance measure | Target for 2024 to 2025 |
|---|---|
| Call handling times | 70% of calls handled within 60 seconds |
| Achieve the Customer Contact Association Global Standard 8 accreditation for our contact centre | By March 2025 |
| Achieve the Customer Service Excellence accreditation | By March 2025 |
| Provide a response to Freedom of Information requests | Within 20 working days |
| Provide a response to Parliamentary questions | By their due date |
| Provide a response to ministerial correspondence | Within agreed timescale |
| Provide a response to official correspondence | Within 20 working days |
Customer insights
This year we will progress delivery of our customer principles, as detailed in our vision to 2030, focussing on improving how we capture customer feedback. We will provide better services for our customers by reviewing the interactions they make with us as part of their end-to-end customer journey.
We are moving to a more cost-effective surveying and customer satisfaction tracking methodology. This will enable us to carry out more research and insight gathering focussed on where we can make improvements to the products and services that we offer.
Contact centre
We have seen a 37% rise in customer contact compared to pre-pandemic levels of contact. To address this, we will explore a web chat channel for our customers. As the channel grows, we will look at customers’ needs for chatbots and chatbot artificial intelligence to improve self-service and accessibility. By expanding these digital options, we will seek opportunities to help our customers self-serve, without the need to speak to colleagues in the customer contact centre.
During the year we will also use improved analytics technology and natural language processing to help us understand why our customers contacted us. We will analyse the discussion on call to better understand challenges that our customers may face in their user journey. This will allow us to introduce more self-service options and improve customer experience. We will review the end-to-end customer journey, analysing calls and taking action where needed to ensure our customers have the information they need, reducing the need to contact an agent.
Later in the year we will look to introduce asynchronous chat, which will allow our customers to contact us on the go. This will allow us to address customer demand for our services in a way that suits our customers.
Communication
In 2024/25 we will develop the content on our GOV.UK site to make information accessible for the widest possible audience. We will also be exploring where Easy Read and British Sign Language may be helpful.
We will continue to develop and run behaviour change campaigns, building on the success of our Ready to Pass? campaign. The aim of these campaigns will be to inform and advise the public about key road safety messages and ways to improve compliance.
Our people
| Performance measure | Target for 2024 to 2025 |
|---|---|
| Continue to increase the percentage of our people from underrepresented groups (16 to 24-year-olds, disabled people, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, women) | From the 2021 to 2022 baseline |
| Continue to increase the number of apprentices with a headcount target of 5% | In 2024 to 2025 |
| Reduce the overall number of assaults on DVSA colleagues | 10% |
A modern civil service
As civil servants we are committed to delivering a skilled, innovative and ambitious organisation equipped for the future. We will work with DfT and wider government to rise to the challenge of the headcount cap announced in the autumn of 2023. As we achieve the above, we will play our part in providing high quality advice to the government, outstanding services to the public and safeguarding the UK’s prosperity and security.
Culture
In our vision to 2030, we developed our 5 cultural aspirations, detailing how we aim to be respectful, valued, together, enabled and ready for the future. These aspirations will assist us in making DVSA more inclusive and a great place to work. We aim to be an organisation that has people at the heart of what we do, because we believe that that not only makes DVSA a great place to work, but also promotes a better customer experience.
We will continue to work towards these aspirations to further develop our ways of working. As we embed a service-led, customer-centric approach, we will develop our culture to enable this. Our key areas of focus will be on how we improve collaboration, get greater consistency in our approach to developing and leading our people, and empower decision making.
By working with the Government Property Agency, we will continue to move our administrative colleagues to a range of efficient, hybrid workspaces. This will help us create positive, collaborative ways of working so we can all be our best in the work we do.
A leadership behaviour framework is currently in design, identifying key leadership behaviours supporting our vision and strategy, service-led approach, culture aspirations and expectations of leaders. The final version of this will be ready in 2024/25 and roll out will support our push for a better, more consistent, experience at work for our colleagues. A coaching and mentoring platform is also being developed to promote coaching and mentoring capability and for colleagues to be able to access this as a development opportunity.
Diversity and inclusion
We will work to attract and retain the best people to provide the best services to the communities we serve. We will develop our colleagues from under-represented groups, offer more opportunities for diverse, young talent, and work with staff network groups (SNGs) to make sure that we support our colleagues well and understand each other’s needs.
Using the Civil Service People Survey results and our own pulse survey research, we will prioritise promoting appropriate behaviours so that fewer colleagues feel they have been bullied or harassed at work and more colleagues feel confident recording diversity information.
Skills and learning
We will continue to build and promote professional capability and create a comprehensive suite of DVSA profession career pathways.
We will also develop talent aligned to our diversity and inclusion action plan and set clear expectations and behaviours supporting DVSA leadership capability.
We will continue to widen our range of apprenticeship opportunities to support operational and transformation needs.
Reward, recognition and employee value
In 2024/25 we will reward our workforce appropriately, flexibly, and fairly and develop a long-term reward strategy.
Wellbeing, health, and safety
DVSA encourages a leading-edge approach to wellbeing that supports colleagues’ needs and improves our working environment.
By continuing to create great places to work, we will provide our colleagues with an environment where we will all feel supported and safe from inappropriate behaviour or abuse.
Digital and data
In 2024/25, we aim to provide a flexible and informed digital and data service, supporting DVSA services to meet customer need, in line with the assessment framework launched by the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO).
Mission 1: transformed public services that achieve the right outcomes
With 2 of DVSA’s services in the top 75 government services assessed as great, we are developing plans with service owners to ensure more of our services exceed the standards for digital service delivery recognised by the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO).
We are progressing changes to our Digital and Data operational model to support design, delivery and continuous improvement of our services, building of communities of practice that can flex capability between services, grow internal capacity, with clear pathways for DVSA careers in technology.
Mission 2: GOV.UK One Login
One Login is the new way for people to access government services online; quickly, safely, with one username and password, and without having to repeatedly confirm their identity. We already deliver one external customer service using One Login as the access route for customers. This year we will continue to explore the opportunities to onboard more of our services and develop a prioritised plan, which is informed by the insights and experiences of our service users.
Mission 3: better data to power decision making
DVSA is increasingly focussed on the power of the data that we process, our responsibilities and the opportunities for that data better to inform decision making.
Our refreshed data strategy will incorporate recognition of the roles, responsibilities, and skills for data users. It will include the safeguards required to keep data secure and maximise our data analytics capabilities and data sharing opportunities, where we can demonstrate value for our service users.
We are working with departmental and cross-government colleagues to develop an enterprise approach to data collection, storage, processing and sharing. This approach will bring greater consistency and clarity across all our services and aligns with government standards. We will continue to conduct data maturity assessments and develop further initiatives to improve data literacy, helping our data users to gain greater insights that support improvements for services and customer experiences.
Mission 4: efficient, secure and sustainable technology
Having completed our journey to remove all legacy systems from our estate, our focus is now on ensuring we modernise the older solutions and make routine the continuous improvement of our services. As we do this, we aim not to just update, but to build in greater efficiency, security and sustainability so that we minimise or eliminate the need for large scale modernisations in the future. An example of this is the work we are doing to embed the Secure by Design principles across our project and service improvement lifecycles.
As part of mission 3, we are maximising the potential of our data to streamline and improve decision making. We are keen to ensure this work creates a sound basis for initiatives which are created through emerging technologies and automation such as generative AI and machine learning. This will help us to capitalise on the opportunities that these create to improve processes, increase everyday efficiency, and innovate to deliver better value for our service users.
Mission 5: digital skills at scale
Following the approval to proceed with our ambitious Digital and Data Capability project, we are in the process of implementing a new operational delivery model. This model will enable DVSA Digital to:
- increase internal capacity successfully
- grow the skills of our people
- open up the professional career routes across a broader range of digital, data and technology roles
Our aim to deliver significant efficiencies across DVSA services and functions will only be achieved through greater internal capacity and the ability to grow our own digital, data and technology professionals. This will allow us to deploy the best to the most pressing needs and better flex resources between services to meet changing priorities.
During 2024/25, to deliver this capacity and capability and to meet the cross-government ambition for scale we will be working to:
- align role definitions to the government Digital and Data, and Security Capability Frameworks
- achieve 30 days to hire
- improve our attraction and retention strategies to increase the diversity of our digital and data teams
- a set of commitments to offer a greater range of learning opportunities for all the digital and data colleagues
- continue the great start we have made working with the wider DfT family on the next generation of digital and data roles and reward frameworks
- grow our recently launched DVSA Digital Apprenticeship Academy
- offer opportunities for DVSA people with non-digital backgrounds to increase their digital and data knowledge and skills
Mission 6: a system that unlocks digital transformation
The new Digital and Data operating model not only enables the scaling of internal capability but also helps us to evolve our technology offer towards a product-centred, rather than functional, approach. This will help services to:
- prioritise with clear and consistent technical input from the start of an initiative
- allow greater flex of resources between products and services
- focus on evidenced user needs
- support the career growth for our digital and data colleagues
We also recognise that there are some needs, improvements and solutions which are not unique to one product or service and appreciate the importance of an enterprise-wide view of our data, technologies and applications. Our work continues to develop this consistent DVSA-wide enterprise architecture and operational model to deliver services as efficiently as possible, maximise future investment decisions and support our service users.
Finance
| Performance measure | Target for 2024 to 2025 |
|---|---|
| Prompt payment of invoices | Within 5 working days |
DVSA is primarily funded from the fees charged for essential services that we provide. We will continue to focus on the need to review the fees we charge to ensure that we are able to recover the costs of those services from those that use them.
We will continue to work with DfT and ministers on reviewing and updating our fees. Our headline fees have not been increased for over 12 years.
In order to ensure that we keep a careful control over what we spend, we aim to deliver further efficiency savings, on top of the £16.6m already delivered during the SR21 period.
The source of these savings will be through driving efficiencies across the organisation, looking for ways we can simplify processes to reduce cost. In addition, we will continue to invest in modernising our digital systems delivering better, more efficient services to our fee payers and automating or digitising manual, paper-based processes where they remain. The focus for the year will be progressing with modernising the Driver Services digital platform.
As part of DfT group, we will support the Unity programme, to implement a new shared services platform covering Finance, Commercial and HR. This is a joint programme between DfT, HMRC and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Estates
DVSA is supporting and contributing to the Government Property Strategy where the objective is for a smaller, better and greener estate. Additionally, by working with the Government Property Agency, where possible, we support the Government Hubs Programme. We have already moved to a Hub location in Nottingham and this year we plan to move into a co-located government building in Leeds, prepare for a move in Bristol and complete the refurbishment of our office space in Swansea, which is shared with DfT.
The discussions around future opportunities to co-locate with other government departments will continue. We will also review the administrative estate to assess if the number of locations can be increased. A collaborative approach between the Workwise project and the estate team has facilitated the introduction of smarter working principles with better use of collaborative workspaces and technology.
We remain committed to delivering a more flexible and modernised operational working environment for our frontline staff. Smarter working environments are also being introduced into the operational portfolio allowing greater sharing of accommodation by service delivery functions. Multi-purpose test centres are being remodelled to facilitate a collaborative working approach, refurbishing buildings, and decarbonising the estate. This programme continues at pace.
Improving the standard of the estate is a priority alongside ensuring that services are being delivered from the most appropriate locations. The maintenance backlog project will complete this year and investment into a new facility at Scotch Corner will be delivered.
Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) has been found within our goods vehicle testing service (GVTS) estate. The first phase of the project will complete this year. The project involves:
- following the advice of professional consultants
- finalising intrusive surveys
- prioritising health and safely
- understanding the extent of required remedial work
- providing ongoing maintenance
The disposal of the surplus estate which includes most of the GVTS estate will continue and we will review how this can be expediated. We will also review which services can be relocated out of affected RAAC sites as soon as possible.
Sustainability
| Performance measure | Target for 2024 to 2025 |
|---|---|
| Contribute towards the government’s target to bring greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 through the 2021-2025 Greening Government Commitments | Fourth year contribution to the Greening Government Commitments |
| Increase the number of roof-mounted solar panel installations by a further 60kWp over multiple sites | By March 2025 |
We published and launched our sustainability strategy in 2023/24. In 2024/25 we plan to review the strategy, to take into account new developments and reporting requirements as well as the anticipated 2025-30 Greening Government Commitment (GGC) targets.
We will encourage more of our colleagues to become sustainability champions, to build support and gain from individuals’ enthusiasm across the agency to contribute to our sustainability agenda.
Our additional reporting requirements include:
- climate change adaptation planning
- biodiversity (gain) planning
- task force on climate-related financial disclosure (TCFD)
In 2024/25, we will also be engaging with the Government Digital Sustainability Alliance, as well as ongoing membership of DfT’s sustainability forum.
We will continue to work towards achieving the government fleet commitment (100% zero emission vehicles (ZEV) by 2027) whilst assessing available vehicles, charging infrastructure options and potential impact or modifications to our service delivery.
We plan to implement our travel policy, to help us make better and safer travel choices, as well as fulfil our GGC target by reducing our travel emissions by 5% of the 2017/18 baseline year.
We will continue to decarbonise our estate, by replacing fossil-fuel heating systems with air-source heat pump systems at selected multi-purpose test centres (MPTC) and install an additional 60kWp roof-mounted solar panels to reduce our ongoing energy costs and emissions.
All these measures will reduce our buildings’ energy demand, carbon emissions (CO2e) and ongoing power costs.
Annex A
| Financial forecast | Business plan 2024 to 2025 (£’000) |
|---|---|
| Statutory fee income | (420,547) |
| Non-statutory income | (15,357) |
| Total income | (435,904) |
| Staff costs[footnote 1] | 229,056 |
| IT costs | 52,601 |
| Accommodation costs | 45,044 |
| Theory test charges | 55,876 |
| Depreciation | 44,000 |
| Other non-pay costs | 47,865 |
| Total expenditure | 474,442 |
| Net operating deficit | 38,538 |
| Net interest | 9,804 |
| Net deficit | 48,342 |
Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) as voted in Parliament[footnote 2]
| Resource DEL[footnote 3] | 3,800 |
|---|---|
| Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) | 100 |
| Total Resource and AME | 3,900 |
| Capital DEL | 43,100 |
Income is displayed as a negative number (in brackets) and expenditure as a positive.