Oliver Morley, the chief executive of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, has been awarded a CBE in the New Year’s honours list.

Oliver Morley has been awarded a CBE – Photo credit: Photoshot for CSW

Morley, who has been at the DVLA for just over three years, has overseen the agency’s move to bring its IT capability back in house after its long-term contract for outsourced IT expired.

In an interview with PublicTechnology’s sister publication Civil Service World in 2015, Morley said that this was the first time in 22 years that the DVLA had been in “proper control” of its own IT, and that the change should result in savings of around £220m over the next decade.

Writing on Twitter following the announcement of his CBE, Morley said that it was a “real honour” and that the work had been a “team effort”.

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Other recipients of honours in the New Year’s list include the Ministry of Justice’s chief operating officer Matthew Coats, who has received the Companion of the Order of the Bath, or CB.

Coats has oversight of the digital and technology functions at the department, which is undergoing a major digital transformation that includes £1bn of changes aimed at making “a wholesale shift to access justice digitally”.

Meanwhile, Barry Lowry, the director of IS shared services and strategy in the Northern Ireland Executive, has been awarded an OBE for services to government and the IT industry in Northern Ireland.

MBEs have been awarded to Lily Lewis, programme manager at HM Revenue and Customs, for services to digital transformation and customer service; Alesha De-Freitas, head of the digital single market at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; and Mira Vyas, senior executive officer on the Universal Credit programme.

In local government, a CBE has been awarded to Kim Bromley-Derry, the chief executive of Newham Borough Council, which has recently overhauled its social service delivery by making better use of digital technologies and integrating various social service systems.

The leaders of Wandsworth Borough Council and Surrey County Council, Ravindra Govindia and David Hodge, respectively, have also received CBEs, while Robert Sleigh, the leader of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, received an MBE.