Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of delays in processing Passenger Carrying Vehicle licences by the DVLA on the availability of bus drivers in (a) Kent and (b) the UK.

During October the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) focussed extra resource on vocational driving licence applications to support the driver shortage. This has been successful with routine applications for vocational driving licences, including for passenger carrying vehicles, now being processed within normal turnaround times of five working days. In the seven days to 12 November, nearly 60% more vocational licences were processed compared to a similar period in 2019. It may take longer to process cases where medical investigations are needed.