About DVLA

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), previously the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre (DVLC), opened for business over forty years ago, taking over responsibility from the Local Authorities. Since then the Agency has been through a radical process of change, moving away from a paper based organisation to a modern and highly efficient business and leading the way in Government in providing electronic services to its customers. For more information visit www.gov.uk/browse/driving

Who we are and what we do

DVLA is sponsored through the Motoring Services Directorate of the Department for Transport (DfT), previously the Motoring and Freight Services Group. The Agency’s main headquarters is located in Swansea.

Our sponsoring directorate acts across the Driving Standards Agency, Vehicle and Operator Services Agency, Vehicle Certification Agency and Government Car and Despatch Agency in addition to DVLA, managing performance and co-ordinating direction and strategy as a Group.


Our main responsibilities are to:

• maintain over 44 million driver records and over 36 million current licensed vehicle records
• collect nearly £6 billion a year in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED)
• limit vehicle tax evasion to no more than 1 per cent
• support the police and intelligence authorities in dealing with vehicle related crime.

Each year we handle around 200 million interactions and 120 million transactions which include:

• 18.5 million drivers transactions
• 90.1 million vehicle transactions

Issue:

• 10.1 million driving licences
• 17.6 million vehicle registration documents

Receive:

• 22.1 million phone calls
• 252,000 emails

(Figures from Annual Report and Accounts 2011-12)

Find out more about DVLA

Our people
Governance
Transparency and Accountability