The DVLA told us: "Our online services are the quickest, easiest and often cheapest way to deal with us. We have been busy adding new online services since March 2020 to make it even easier for customers. Social distancing requirements mean that we must have fewer staff than usual on-site at any one time. If you post applications to us, which must be processed securely on-site by a member of staff, they will take longer than if you apply online.

You can complete most transactions online which means you don’t need to post an application or speak to our contact centre. If you apply online, you should receive your driving licence or vehicle documents within 5 days. Paper applications are likely to take up to 6 weeks to process, but there may be additional delays in processing more complex transactions. There is no need to phone to chase up your application during this time as we are dealing with all paper applications as quickly as possible and in the order in which they are received.

Our contact centre opening hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm and Saturday 8am to 4pm. Demand is currently very high on our phone lines, so for all general enquiries the quickest way to find information is to use the Contact DVLA service to access our 24 hour chatbot or email services. You can also follow us on Twitter or use our online services to solve your query."