The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), an executive agency of the Department for Transport, has promised to launch an urgent probe over absenteeism claims that has developed at the Swansea-based executive agency since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
As per the undercover investigation led by a Times journalist, some staff at DVLA had been put on “special paid leave” while others worked one-week-on and one-week-off in the early stages of the pandemic.
Currently, DVLA has a backlog of around 850,000 paper applications that are still not processed.
“We take the allegations made extremely seriously and are urgently investigating. These claims are not representative of the hard-working culture in DVLA, nor are they a true reflection of the 6,000 plus staff who have worked incredibly hard to help keep the country moving throughout the pandemic,'' a DVLA spokesperson said.
