diff --git a/app/celery/tasks.py b/app/celery/tasks.py
index fc50e4e0c..c4ea9731f 100644
--- a/app/celery/tasks.py
+++ b/app/celery/tasks.py
@@ -265,22 +265,26 @@ def persist_letter(
 @notify_celery.task(bind=True, name="build-dvla-file", max_retries=15, default_retry_delay=300)
 @statsd(namespace="tasks")
 def build_dvla_file(self, job_id):
-    if all_notifications_are_created_for_job(job_id):
-        notifications = dao_get_all_notifications_for_job(job_id)
-        file = ""
-        for n in notifications:
-            t = {"content": n.template.content, "subject": n.template.subject}
-            # This unique id is a 7 digits requested by DVLA, not known if this number needs to be sequential.
-            unique_id = int(''.join(map(str, random.sample(range(9), 7))))
-            template = LetterDVLATemplate(t, n.personalisation, unique_id)
-            file = file + str(template) + "\n"
-        s3upload(filedata=file,
-                 region=current_app.config['AWS_REGION'],
-                 bucket_name=current_app.config['DVLA_UPLOAD_BUCKET_NAME'],
-                 file_location="{}-dvla-job.text".format(job_id))
-    else:
-        current_app.logger.info("All notifications for job {} are not persisted".format(job_id))
-        self.retry(queue="retry", exc="All notifications for job {} are not persisted".format(job_id))
+    try:
+        if all_notifications_are_created_for_job(job_id):
+            notifications = dao_get_all_notifications_for_job(job_id)
+            file = ""
+            for n in notifications:
+                t = {"content": n.template.content, "subject": n.template.subject}
+                # This unique id is a 7 digits requested by DVLA, not known if this number needs to be sequential.
+                unique_id = int(''.join(map(str, random.sample(range(9), 7))))
+                template = LetterDVLATemplate(t, n.personalisation, unique_id)
+                file = file + str(template) + "\n"
+            s3upload(filedata=file,
+                     region=current_app.config['AWS_REGION'],
+                     bucket_name=current_app.config['DVLA_UPLOAD_BUCKET_NAME'],
+                     file_location="{}-dvla-job.text".format(job_id))
+        else:
+            current_app.logger.info("All notifications for job {} are not persisted".format(job_id))
+            self.retry(queue="retry", exc="All notifications for job {} are not persisted".format(job_id))
+    except Exception as e:
+        current_app.logger.exception("build_dvla_file threw exception")
+        raise e
 
 
 def s3upload(filedata, region, bucket_name, file_location):