How much we will spend and save

Managing our Finances

We will spend £556.4 million, of which £465 million is raised through fees - around one third on DVLA staff costs and over half on purchasing goods and services of third parties (see Financial Summary- Projections). Income and Expenditure

For 2011-12 and onwards, most fees will remain fixed at the same level as 2010-11. For more information visit www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring. We have proposed that a fee of £20 be re-introduced for vocational drivers to meet directly attributable costs of systems changes and additional volumes for their services. We have also proposed reduced fees as an incentive for those customers who have paper licences or wish to renew their driving licences and have recently renewed their passports. It will benefit both DVLA and customers to align these two documents and decrease the effort and costs of processing by allowing a far greater proportion of drivers to interact with DVLA electronically. The change also increases the consistency of data across Government, the security of the drivers data held and the security of identity of the individuals involved.

During the year we will be working to introduce further secure enquiry facilities. The charges for access are not statutory and will need to at least cover the full costs of introduction and provision in order not to place a financial burden on motorists. We will rationalise existing charges and reflect the lower cost to DVLA electronic channels.

Steering a largely demand led and evolving business whilst balancing effectiveness and data security against ease of access and cost, calls for a pragmatic approach to risk management (see Risk Management). The Agency will continue to apply and improve best practice across the public service.

From April 2004 to March 2011, DVLA finances were managed as a statutory Trading Fund. From 1 April 2011, the Agency will no longer be a Trading Fund and its accounts will be consolidated directly with those of DfT as its sponsor Department. The reason for this change, made by HM Treasury is purely one of technical accounting and funding consistency as, without public corporation status, there were anomalies under the move to ‘clear line of sight’ for Government accounting which could not be resolved in another way.

We are not expecting this change to financial regime to add significantly to the reporting responsibility and burden laid on a dedicated finance team. The team has already been streamlined to meet best in class standards as set out for government. We will work closely with DfT to ensure this is so and that the efficiency and effectiveness of DVLA is not adversely impacted by a change for technical accounting reasons.

Agency performance and accounts have been and will continue to be audited by the National Audit Office and presented to Parliament.

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