Amazing report on this in The Times today. Most of the DVLA's 6,200 staff were sent home during the first lockdown, but 3,400 were put on paid special leave without working at all. There were still almost 2,000 staff on paid special leave months later, with no expectation they would work, even from home. In 9 of the past 24 months more than 500 staff have not been working, either on paid special leave or on strike.
The DVLA receives 60,000 items of post a day, but there has not been enough staff to open and process them, and backlogs have led to some people who rely on their cars for work being unable to drive for more than a year. Also, last year there were 58 days of strikes in almost six months. What a shambles.