The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA; Welsh: Asiantaeth Trwyddedu Gyrwyr a Cherbydau) is the organisation of the UK Government responsible for maintaining a database of drivers and a database of vehicles in Great Britain; its counterpart in Northern Ireland is the Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA). The agency issues driving licences, organises collection of vehicle excise duty (also known as road tax and road fund licence) and sells private number plates.
The DVLA is an executive agency of the Department for Transport; the responsibility of which rests with one of the department's ministerial team - the current minister responsible being Mike Penning, MP. The current acting Chief Executive of the agency is Simon Tse, replacing Noel Shanahan who was appointed in 2007 and moved to the DfT in May 2010.
The DVLA is based in Swansea, south Wales, with a prominent 16 storey building in Clase and offices in Swansea Vale. It was previously known as the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre (DVLC). The agency also has a network of offices around Great Britain, known as the Local Office Network.
DVLA introduced Electronic Vehicle Licensing (EVL) in 2004 with customers now being able to pay vehicle excise duty online and by phone. However, customers still have the option to tax their vehicles via the Post Office.
The DVLA is also incorrectly assumed to endorse driving licences with penalty points. However, the DVLA has no legal power to convict a motorist of a driving offence. If the licence is surrendered to the police for an endorsable offence, the licence is sent to the magistrates court in the county the offence was committed in, endorsed, and returned to the driver; DVLA's database is updated electronically by the magistrates court and will only request the licence if the driver has failed to produce it to the magistrates, either through the police, a fixed penalty ticket, or summons.
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