The DVLA has earned nearly £3million from controversial premium rate lines

The government’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has earned nearly £3million over four years by charging callers to use controversial premium rate lines, a new investigation reveals today.

The income is derived from premium-rate phone lines that cost 51 pence per minute to ring – or more than three times the 16p per minute standard 01 and 02 numbers cost to call.

The income is proving ‘a nice little earner’ for the Treasury said motoring magazine Auto Express which unearthed details following a freedom of information request to the DVLA.

It has also attracted criticism from the AA motoring organisation which says they should be scrapped immediately and replaced with Freephone numbers.

The majority of phone calls to the DVLA’s premium-rate lines were made by car-hire and insurance companies to check their customers’ driving licence details.

However those costs will ultimately find their way to consumers in terms of higher insurance premiums and car-hire costs, say experts at the AA.

Some 3.34 million calls – at an average length of 92 seconds – were made by car hire and other firms between the 2015/16 and 2018/19 financial years, according to the data supplied.

It also reveals that the DVLA grossed a total of £2,958,992 from its premium-rate lines over the four year period in question.

However, the lines brought in just under £600,000 in the last financial year, significantly down on the £971,713 they generated in 2015/16 as more firms switch to a free online digital check.

Auto Express said the DVLA declined to say what net profit the lines generated, nor were revenue records for the latest financial year available.

Auto Express noted: ‘While the lines may be declining in popularity, 408,270 calls were still made in the 2019/20 financial year, meaning they remain nice little earners for the Treasury – which is where the DVLA passes on its revenue. ‘

The DVLA’s fax verification service, which performed a similar function to the phone lines, proved less lucrative. This cost a whopping £5 per fax, but closed in January 2018 due to lack of use.

Phone call and fax income pales into insignificance compared to the revenue the DVLA brings in for the Treasury via other channels, however.

The organisation takes roughly £17million a year through the sale of motorists’ details to private parking firms, while its personalised number plate operation has raised around £2billion since it launched in 1989.

The DVLA said: ‘The premium rate number which receives the majority of calls deals with insurers and car hire firms and allows them to check their customers’ driving licence details.’

It said its premium-rate line was set up in the early 1990s ‘at the request of the insurance and car hire industry’.

But companies are able to perform the same checks free of charge online. It added: ‘We regularly communicate this to the industry through our different channels.’

The DVLA said its phone lines for private motorists are 0300 numbers, which are charged at the same rate as 01 or 02 dialling codes.

The organisation added that the premium-rate lines were presently closed due ‘reduced staffing and services’ to the coronavirus outbreak.

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA, criticised the DVLA’s use of premium-rate lines. He said: ‘Regardless of who has to use them, it’s shocking that government bodies continue to use premium-rate numbers.

‘When the data was made available online, the right thing to do would have been to create a new local-rate line. We hope the DVLA changes the number. Even though the phone line is used by companies, these costs ultimately end up being paid by the consumer. They won’t be pleased to be on the hook.’