DVLA could be shut down or merged under Jacob Rees-Mogg plan for bonfire of the quangos
The DVLA could be shut down under plans by the Minister for Government Efficiency Jacob Rees-Mogg for a bonfire of the quangos.
The DVLA is one of the largest employers in Wales, with over 5,000 staff in Swansea, but ministers are believed to be looking at savings of between 10 and 20 per cent in government spending, according to the Telegraph.
One Whitehall source told the newspaper there had been a “total failure” by the DVLA “to provide the public service it is meant to”.
Last week, Jacob Rees-Mogg told Bristol Live he was “still constantly writing to the DVLA on behalf of my constituents to get them driving licenses, and we know that the DVLA was simply not working properly with people working from home. That’s very unfair on my constituents.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg has embarked on a drive to end the work from home culture in the Civil Service.
The Public and Commercial Services Union meanwhile have been critical throughout the pandemic of the DVLA’s insistence that staff are unable to work remotely. Last year members staged 58 days of strikes in response to what they called “unsafe” working conditions.
‘Merged’
But in a letter to secretaries of state, Jacob Rees-Mogg wrote: “Necessary public bodies are an important delivery mechanism for the Government. The cost and number of these bodies continues to increase.
“Public bodies should only exist when there is a pressing need, must be accountable to Parliament and be efficient and effective. Please review your public bodies for any that you consider could be provided by organisations other than the state and therefore closed.
“There are other bodies that have duplication in the types of service they provide, often causing confusion to the public. These organisations could well be merged to create a more coherent service for the public, share best practice and reduce cost.”
He asked for ministers to provide “a list of your public bodies sponsored by your department” and “your proposals to close and merge bodies from that list”, by June 24.
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Perhaps he should tell “his constituents” to make sure their applications for licences are completed properly. I changed vehicles recently and DVLA processed all the disposal and acquisition paperwork within days. There may be problems within that agency but the job of Ministers and their lackeys is to sort those out and improve service levels rather than threaten closure or rationalisation every time there’s a minor bump in the road. He’s a stupid arse anyway, probably couldn’t figure his way out of a wet paperbag without help from a couple of low paid flunkeys.
Defund the organisation, ignore the same disastrous effects the pandemic has on so many similar services & claim it’s not working & should be privatised to allow his pals make money at the publics expense. Ignore the current failures of the privatised industries. Rail, power, Royal Mail, telephones. As Anuerin Bevan said “Toryism is organised spivery”! All Tories are “lower than vermin”!
Given past and present fiascos around the private sector having a go at government tasks, JRM clearly has selective amnesia. Though it grinds having to agree with him, the DVLA along with other publicly run setups, including education, are pretty rubbish at doing what’s asked of them most of the time, and a good enema here and there wouldn’t go amiss,
What’s the betting that in 5 years time the DVLA will no longer be in Swansea but a merged unit somewhere in England and the steel plant in Port Talbot will be gone too?
This along with chronic underfunding is showing us Cymru is not benefiting from being part of the Union (It never has). We can not go on like this, our children deserve better. The Welsh government needs to wake up and start preparing for an independent future.
Sounds like he wants to scrap the UK owned DVLA and contract a private company to provide the service (and take a profit) like they’ve done for pretty much everything including printing UK passports in Poland. If they close the DVLA then UK driving licences will probably end up getting printed in Poland too.
… Which may effectively be in Russia by then if the West maintain their pontification over Ukraine [Off topic I know]
A private company would also sell your details, both driving and medical, to the highest bidders.
If we take that Conservative clot Jacob Rees-Smugg word literally regarding the DVLA in Swansea’s failure to provide public service Whitehall would have ceased to exist years ago.
Does JRM’s proposed ‘ bonfire 🔥’ need a Guy Fawkes ?
Suggestions on a post card please to No 10. Downing Street for the attention of L Truss MP who by all accounts may well be keen to facilitate.
The best way to make savings in government is to have a bonfire of the Tory crooks. I’m not saying all Tories are crooks even though I disagree with them on pretty much everything. But in this current administration, there are lots of crooks many of whom sit (or in the case of JRM: lounge) on the front bench. The DVLA is a massively inefficient organisation, but it needs to be fixed, not “burned”
The DVLA is an Agency (hence the ‘A’ at the end of the acronym), not a Quango.
Has Mogg run this idea past his fellow MP Grant Shapps, the man at the top of the Department for Transport, which the DVLA is part of?