To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will investigate the difficulties reported as having been caused by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency policies in relation to the hiring of motor vehicles.

The paper counterpart to the photocard driving licence was abolished on 8 June 2015 as part of the Red Tape Challenge commitments. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) introduced a number of services for drivers and others to obtain the information that was previously held on the counterpart. These include an online service.

There was a slowdown in service on 8 June, when high demand led to some customers being unable to access the online service. During this period, the DVLA increased the number of available telephone lines in its contact centre. This meant that all customers who needed a code to be able to share their driving licence details with third parties, including car hire companies, could get one. In the week commencing 8 June, the DVLA answered all calls to the dedicated local rate telephone service to check driving licence details within one minute 55 seconds.

The issue with the DVLA’s online service was fixed at around 1am on 9 June and the service has been working as it should since. More than 280,000 customers have successfully used the online service between Monday 8 June and Thursday 11 June and more than 83,000 check codes have been generated. Also, more than 18,000 check codes have been redeemed by third parties to check the details on the driving licences.