Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency failed to properly investigate complaint of racism and failed to put things right

What happened

Mr P was turned away from a driving test theory centre because staff said he had already taken the driving theory test and had impersonated other candidates. Mr P denied this and complained staff were racist towards him. Although he had been told that he could reapply to take the test, Mr P was turned away a second time.

Mr P complained to DVSA but was not happy with the outcome. The Independent Complaints Assessor (ICA), the organisation that investigates complaints about the Department for Transport and its agencies, investigated and partly upheld Mr P's complaint. However, Mr P was not satisfied with the amount of financial compensation the ICA recommended.

What we found

We partly upheld this complaint. Although test centre staff were mistaken in their belief that Mr P had attended the test centre previously, they acted in line with DVSA's internal guidance when they first turned him away. However, DVSA failed to properly investigate the staff's suspicions at the right time, which meant the opportunity to examine whether there was any validity in those suspicions was lost. DVSA also failed to act upon the evidence Mr P gave it to prove he could not have been at the test centre on the previous date.

There was an apparent disconnection between DVSA's fraud investigation and its complaints processes. DVSA dismissed Mr P's allegations of racism but there is no evidence it took any action to investigate his complaint about this. DVSA found no evidence he had impersonated anyone, but it also did not tell Mr P this. It also did not tell him that it had finished its investigation. DVSA says it takes allegations of racism against its staff very seriously, but it failed to do so on this occasion.

It took over seven months for DVSA to answer Mr P's complaints that his treatment amounted to racism. We agreed with the ICA when it said this was 'completely unacceptable'.

DVSA's failings caused Mr P humiliation and distress. The poor complaint handling caused him inconvenience and effort because he had to chase his complaint over a period of nine months. He became genuinely reluctant to take his test again because his efforts to prove he was not an impersonator were ignored, and this led him to expect the same treatment on a third occasion.

DVSA's failure to investigate Mr P's concerns properly, and its failure to tell him that the fraud investigation was dropped, reinforced his belief that staff discriminated against him. Mr P's representative gave us a compelling account of the impact of these failings on Mr P and why he thought the motivation for his treatment was racism. As a refugee in this country, he felt badly treated and let down by the state.

The ICA had made some recommendations to put things right for Mr P but we thought DVSA should do more.

Putting it right

DVSA paid an additional £250 to Mr P and reviewed the procedures for investigating complaints of racism in theory test centres.