About
This page explains how content on DvlaBuddy is written, checked, and maintained. We publish these standards so readers can understand exactly how the information they are reading was produced.
Every guide, reference page, and news post on this site is written by Neil Bradshaw, Licensing Documentation Consultant. No content is written by contractors, guest contributors, or automated systems without Neil reviewing and rewriting it to his own standard before publication.
Neil has over twelve years of hands-on experience with DVLA documentation. That experience directly informs how guides are written, what common mistakes they highlight, and what practical detail they include beyond the official GOV.UK instructions.
Before any guide is written or updated, the relevant GOV.UK pages are checked directly. This includes the form download page, any associated guidance notes, the DVLA services update page for current processing times, and where applicable the official guidance booklets published alongside the form.
For form pages, the actual form is read in full. Every field, every instruction, every fee stated on the form itself is verified before it appears in a guide. If a form version changes, the new version is read before the page is updated.
Fee figures and processing times are taken from GOV.UK directly, not from secondary sources. Every reference page states when the data was last verified and links to the primary GOV.UK source.
For a guide to be published on this site it must do at least one of the following: explain something GOV.UK does not explain. Consolidate information that GOV.UK spreads across multiple pages. Identify mistakes people commonly make that are not flagged in the official instructions. Explain what happens in practice, not just in theory.
A guide that simply restates the GOV.UK instructions in different words is not published here. The bar is usefulness over completeness.
DVLA updates its forms, fees, and processes throughout the year. We monitor GOV.UK for changes using direct page checks and government update alerts.
When DVLA updates a form version, the relevant guide is updated within 48 hours. The form version number, the date, and any changed instructions are all updated in the same edit. A news post is published to log the change.
All reference pages (processing times, fees, postal addresses) are reviewed at the start of every month regardless of whether DVLA has made a formal announcement. The last-verified date on each reference page reflects when this check was last completed.
Form pages are reviewed every two months at minimum. Any page where the content could be affected by a DVLA change is checked before its review date if there is any reason to believe the information may have changed.
The primary source for all content on this site is GOV.UK. Where applicable, we also reference official DVLA publications such as guidance booklets (for example MIS546 for vehicle record enquiries) and relevant legislation including the Road Traffic Act 1988.
We do not cite secondary sources, news articles, or forums for factual claims about DVLA forms, fees, or processes. If a figure or requirement cannot be verified against a primary GOV.UK or legislative source, it does not appear in a guide.
We do not accept payment to publish or change editorial content. We do not accept guest posts. We do not republish press releases without independent verification. We do not infer or estimate fees, processing times, or form requirements. If we cannot verify something, we say so or we leave it out.
We do not claim to be affiliated with DVLA or GOV.UK. That disclaimer appears on every page of this site.
If you believe something on this site is incorrect or out of date, please contact us. We take correction requests seriously. If an error is confirmed, the page is corrected and, where appropriate, a note is added to the page explaining what changed.