The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has issued an urgent warning to drivers regarding the renewal of their licence.
Motorists whose licence expired last year must get it renewed by the end of 2021 in order to continue to be able to legally drive.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, individuals whose licences ran out between February and December 2020 were provided an extension.
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However, they must now get their certification renewed before the end of the year, as reported by Birmingham Live.
According to the DVLA, in order to avoid any potential delays, people looking to renew their licence should do so by November.
It follows the news that the organisation are facing a large backlog of licence applications, with paper applications sent in August only now being filed.
The DVLA has therefore recommended that people renew their licence online if possible as doing so in this manner will not be affected by the delays.
It was reported in August that up to 1.4 million applications were affected by the backlog, with first-time drivers applying for a new provisional licence facing the longest waits.
The DVLA said on its website that it is receiving around 60,000 items in the mail every day.
It continued: “We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused but we are working as quickly as we can to deal with your application.”
A DVLA spokesperson said: "Our online services have not been impacted by the pandemic and continue to run as normal and without any delays.
"There are delays in processing paper applications due to ongoing industrial action and social distancing requirements, which means that we have had fewer staff than usual on site at any one time.
"Paper applications are taking on average, between six and ten weeks to process but there may be longer delays for more complex transactions such as those that require medical investigations."
