Drivers have been warned by the DVLA to renew their licence soon if their expiration date ran out last year.
They have until the end of year to do this, the department has said.
Motorists whose licence expired between February 1, 2020 and December 2020 will have to apply for a new one.
Due to coronavirus restrictions, all licences which were due to expire within those 11 months were given an automatic extension.
But the DVLA has now warned that drivers should renew by November 2021 to ensure they get their licence on time.
It comes as the agency is working through a huge backlog of applications with the DVLA saying it is working on paper applications submitted in August, BirminghamLive reports.
However, the quickest way to renew your licence will be online to avoid any unnecessary wait. The DVLA says there are no delays for those looking to renew their driving licence online and is urging customers to use this service instead where possible.
Back in August, it was reported up to 1.4 million applications are 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’s 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."
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