Driving Test Availability

Wednesday 16th October 2024 Westminster Hall

16:46

[Peter Swallow (Bracknell) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the availability of driving tests.

It is an honour to serve under you as Chair, Sir Roger.

Driving test delays are a source of misery, anger and lost opportunity across my constituency and the country. Today a new learner will have to wait on average four and a half months for a driving test, which is more than double the wait nine years ago and nearly 50% higher than four years ago. New learners in my constituency must wait on average over five months for their test. Those are some of the worst waiting times in the country, and they have more than tripled since records began in 2015. That is five months during which my constituents’ travel, and therefore their ambitions, are severely restricted. Hon. Members will remember vividly the great feeling of liberation when getting behind the wheel for the first time after passing our driving tests. Today, that rite of passage, instead of a moment of great excitement, is a source of punishing expense, confusion and misery for too many of my constituents.

Take, for example, my constituent Molly, who is having to pay to do her theory again because, like the majority of drivers, she failed her first practical, and now must wait another five months to take a test. I confess that I too did not pass my driving test the first time—a fact that my partner, who did pass first time, always likes to remind me whenever I offer backseat commentary on his handling of Bracknell’s many roundabouts—but what was for me a source of slight irritation is to Molly a significant logistical hurdle with real-world costs. Having struggled to book her test the first time, she now needs to go through the whole long process again. She faces paying continued expenses to keep up lessons, using public transport to get around and possibly retaking her theory simply because it has reached its two-year limit.

Common also are stories like that of Therese, who, unable to find a test for her son for six months, booked him a test in Wales, which involved a costly round trip and an overnight stay, all just to get a test sorted in a reasonable timeframe. Other constituents have contacted me who have gone as far afield as the Isle of Wight and Aberdeen to get tests. Aberdeen is 500 miles from my constituency. When even simple systems like the provision of driving exams break down, inequalities deepen and opportunities dry up. Young people in my area are now seeing their career aspirations and their education take a hit as they look at a half-year delay before they can gain the independence of driving.

There has been national and regional coverage of this story for years, since the 2020 spike in driving test demand, yet the previous Conservative Government failed to get a grip of the crisis. On the one hand, they talked a big game, asking examiners to work ever-longer hours in an ever-exhausting push for short-term solutions—then on the other, they blamed examiners for striking over pay and conditions. What did that fiddling around at the edges get us? Today, waiting lists are more than double where they were in August 2020 and young learners are exposed to more vicious test touting than at any time since.

It is true that the DVSA responded to the immediate spike in 2020 by adding 1,000 more test slots and, over the year 2022-23, cancelling the accounts of more than 600 fake businesses abusing its service to block-book test slots just to sell them on, yet driving test centres in the year to March 2024 also cancelled more than 68,000 tests due to illness and industrial action. Driving instructors in my constituency tell me that that is often last minute and, due to the delays, pushes students back months. An increasing number of students are turning to the black market to get hold of tests, exposing themselves to fraud, abuse and spiralling hidden costs as test touters continue to exploit multiple flaws in the booking system to fuel their exploitative business models.

[David Williams (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend talked about driving instructors, and there is also a significant backlog in the driving tests required to qualify as a driving instructor. Does he agree that it is important that we look to address that backlog as well?

[Peter Swallow]

Absolutely. I have also spoken to businesses in my constituency that have highlighted the huge difficulties with getting tests for driving larger minivans and lorries. This debate is about not just bog- standard driving tests to get on the road, although that is a significant issue, but the whole system-wide problem.

Examiner illness is not something that the Conservative party can be blamed for, but whether it was striking doctors, nurses, train drivers or driving test examiners, the Conservative legacy is one of pushing workers to the brink then denying responsibility when industrial action is the inevitable result. I heard from my constituent Chris, a driving instructor, who explained how the local community of instructors are at their wits’ end over the issue, and feel powerless to stop students turning to the black market to book tests.

Driving examiners in Bracknell are getting up before 6 am on a Monday morning, when local centres release a week’s worth of tests, and by 6.02 am every single slot is gone. Those tests are six months away, yet greedy and unscrupulous test touters are using bots and fake business accounts to block-book those sessions and sell them on at ludicrous premiums. My constituents are scraping together hundreds of pounds to pay double or triple the test price only to have their details cloned, and these black market operators then use them to squeeze others out of the market. Meanwhile, some learners are, more innocently, paying big fees to apps and websites that simply trawl the DVSA database and spot cancelled tests for drivers to book at the last minute, which has fuelled understandable concerns. The drivers are showing up to tests underprepared, winging it in the hope that they just about pass, rather than waiting five months to take a test when they are properly ready.

I urge the Minister to set out what steps can be taken to end this financial abuse. The practice of test touting is against DVSA policy, but what more can we do to end it all together? Has the Minister considered whether the practice of reselling driving tests for profit can be made illegal—in line with our plans to tackle ticket touting—or can the system be fixed so that only legitimate driving instructors are able to transfer tests between their students?

Learner drivers pushed into taking their tests early by a broken system are more likely to fail, and therefore more likely to need to book another test, thereby further fuelling pressure on test centres and pushing up demand. What more can we do to ensure that more learners pass first time, unlike me? Will the Minister also ask the DVSA to investigate opening a test centre in my constituency? It sits in a desert of driving test provision between the M3 and M4. The nearest test centres to Bracknell are Reading and Farnborough. How can it be practical that a town of more than 120,000 people is not served by its own test centre?

If I may, I will touch on the connected subject of car insurance. For many young people, the financial pressure of becoming a new driver does not abate when they have finally managed to book and then pass their test. Next comes a hefty bill for car insurance. It is perfectly reasonable for younger and otherwise less experienced drivers to be charged more for car insurance, as statistically they are more likely to have an accident, but too many of my constituents are paying far more than is reasonable. Car insurance premiums have shot up by 21% since June 2022. This is not just an issue for young people in my constituency; I have also been contacted by older drivers, with many years’ experience on the road, who are being priced out of the market all together. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to welcome the action taken by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport today to launch a new taskforce to address that pressing matter.

The struggles faced by my constituents and by learner drivers across the country represent a brake on our national productivity and an unbearable frustration to our young people who, in understandable desperation, are exposing themselves to fraud and financial abuse at the hands of bad actors cynically exploiting this situation.

[Adam Jogee (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way, which is a nice thing to be able to say from the Back Benches here. He raises an important point and as he touches on insurance, I wonder whether I can bring in the issue of inadequate public transport, particularly in Madeley and in Betley in Newcastle-under-Lyme. I increasingly receive letters and emails from people who see their ability to secure a test after they have failed the first one now being pushed further and further away. The relevant period is rather like the five months that my hon. Friend refers to, but there is a double whammy because of the lack of any viable, meaningful, and affordable public transport, particularly in Madeley and Betley. Without that, and with the pressures of available driving tests being pushed further and further away, many of my constituents, like those in Bracknell, are left at breaking point.

[Peter Swallow]

That is a fantastic point, and perhaps another day I could opine on our train links, which have not improved since the 1970s. That, I fear, is a debate for another day, but my hon. Friend’s point is an excellent one. Not only young people are affected, but many young people look to passing their driving test to give them a real sense of liberation and freedom. That is particularly true in communities where public transport, after 14 years of Conservative Government, is not where it should be. It therefore must absolutely be the priority of this Government to improve transport connectivity for all communities and, in particular, rural and semi-rural communities. It is clear that this Government must be—and are—on the side of the driver. For that reason, I urge the Minister to make real headway on this really important issue.

This situation cannot continue. After years of chaos under the Conservatives, this Government have inherited a broken test system and must now fix another Tory mess. All the while, my constituents face unacceptable waits and undue stress. Passing the driving test should be a moment of great joy and freedom but, for too many, the journey to passing has become a one-way trip to frustration and misery.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Sir Roger Gale (in the Chair)]

Order. Before we proceed, let me first point out that I am going to call those who have submitted letters. Not every Member present and not every Member rising has written in. I have to give priority to those who have submitted an application to participate in the debate first. The second point I have to make, sadly, is that this debate is very time limited indeed. I am going to have to impose a time limit of three minutes and I may have to reduce that.

17:00

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) for setting the scene. He is right to say that the issue of driving licences and the availability of driving tests is not specific to his constituency. It is an issue for the whole of the United Kingdom. I am very pleased to see the Minister in her place; I look forward to her contribution.

Since the pandemic, there are still some areas of the United Kingdom suffering from increasingly long waiting times. Northern Ireland is not the responsibility of the Minister, to be fair, but since it adds to this debate, I want to make a contribution. The situation has improved only recently. It is good to be here to give the Northern Ireland perspective.

I reiterate and endorse the comments that the hon. Member for Bracknell made about car insurance. My hon. Friend the Member for Upper Bann (Carla Lockhart) introduced a debate in the previous Parliament on that issue. Some of my constituents who have just got their first car and applied for insurance have had quotes of between £4,000 and £5,000. For some, it is four times the value of their car. That is what the insurance is just to get them on the road. The hon. Member for Bracknell was right to raise that issue.

Figures released by the Department for Transport state that learner drivers face a wait of at least four months for their test—double the length of delays before the covid pandemic. It has also been said that it is largely due to the fact that appointments are released on a 24-week rolling basis. In Northern Ireland, there were increasingly long delays, especially over the summer months. One of my staff members waited four and a half months for a test date in her local area, just down the road from us. Cancellations are sparse due to the difficulty of getting a test to begin with.

There are also concerns about the validity of the theory test, which can run out if the driving test is taken too late. In Northern Ireland, once a theory test is passed, there are two years until it is out of date. Someone can apply for a driving test, but might not get one first time round. They might have to wait for another test and all of a sudden the theory test is out of date and they have to start the whole process again. Many in Northern Ireland do not consider starting practical lessons until they have passed their theory test, so it is important that practical test backlogs are dealt with to ensure that theory tests do not run out and so that learner drivers do not have to resit them.

There is a cost to all this. For young people specifically there could be a detriment to their learning. I am aware that in recent weeks and months some improvements have been made, but it is evident that for so many across the countries, in areas of mainland England and indeed Northern Ireland, the backlogs have to be addressed. I wish to ask the Minister whether she has had a chance to have any correspondence or contact with the Infrastructure Minister back home to discuss productive ways in which we can deal with backlogs for learner drivers.

17:02

[Helena Dollimore (Hastings and Rye) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) for securing this debate on such an important issue. I speak for many Members across the House when I say what a pressing issue the lack of driving test availability is for so many in our constituencies. I have been contacted by many residents in Hastings and Rye who are trying to get driving tests, but face very long waits when they log on to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency system.

The issue is having a big impact on many constituents. We have new parents hoping to get a driving test in time for the arrival of babies, people with caring responsibilities and also people who have a business need to secure a driving test. It is a really important issue that matters to many across our constituencies.

I welcome the Labour Government’s commitment to cutting the waiting times for driving tests and making that a key priority. It is great that the Secretary of State has met the chief executive of the DVLA to really grip the problem and make it clear that it is a key priority, because it is such a pressing issue for many across our constituencies. I want to make sure that I leave plenty of time for colleagues to speak in this important debate, so I will end my remarks there.

17:04

[Matt Rodda (Reading Central) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) for his excellent work on this important issue. I am also conscious of the time, so I will try to keep my remarks as brief as possible. I want to refer and underline some of the points made by my hon. Friend and other colleagues and also talk about the specific problems in Reading.

First, it is important to restate how important it is to learn to drive. It is a rite of passage and an opportunity for young people—and many others, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye (Helena Dollimore) pointed out—to gain extra mobility, but also potentially to gain economic benefits by opening up the opportunities of a wider range of jobs. That is hugely important. Even in areas such as Reading, where there is excellent public transport, there are many people who rely on a car to travel, quite understandably, and that provides extra mobility and access to a wider range of services and job opportunities.

The points that I would like to highlight regarding my own constituency really follow on from the points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell, and things, in many cases, are even worse. There are 250,000 people in the Reading urban area—we are the second-biggest urban area in the south-east of England—and there is a very young population, with many young people seeking to learn to drive, yet serious backlogs have been developing in the past few years. Some of that is connected to the pandemic, but I am afraid that the previous Government appear to have mismanaged this important public service, and my constituents, and those of neighbouring MPs, are suffering as a result.

The issues of long waits and having to travel long distances are significant for many people in the Reading area. I have had constituents who have had to travel as far as—I cannot say Aberdeen—Cheshire, which is still a significant distance away, or East Anglia, and I have also heard of parents helping their son or daughter to book a test in Cornwall, during a family holiday there, because that was the only place that they could get a test.

Clearly, this situation is completely unacceptable, and it has been made worse by issues with the booking software. I have had a number of meetings with local driving instructors who urged me to raise that with the Minister, and I hope that more can be done. I appreciate that work is under way on this, and that officials in the Department are trying to tackle the problem, but there is some gaming of the system going on that is causing great pressure to many constituents, and indeed adding to the cost of getting a test.

To make matters even worse in my own area, the current test centre on Elgar Road South, which is well known in Reading, is due to close in the spring of 2025. There is a potential replacement, but we do not know where that is or when it will open. That is causing delays and a great deal of uncertainty for local residents—for young people and others—seeking to learn to drive. Reading residents face the prospect of having to drive to Basingstoke to take their tests. That is quite a significant journey and would add a great deal of cost and time to learning to drive and passing the test. I hope that the Minister will be able to offer an update on that. I realise that it is a commercial matter for the Department, but maybe she will be able to write to me with an update on the progress of the negotiations for a new test centre in the Reading area to serve this very large population of ours. Finally—I do appreciate the pressure on time— I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell again for securing this important debate.

17:07

[Amanda Martin (Portsmouth North) (Lab)]

Thank you, Sir Roger, for your chairmanship. It is a pleasure to speak in the debate, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) for introducing it. During covid lockdowns, 850,000 tests were cancelled, and the service has been struggling ever since. The demand for driving tests currently outweighs availability. Since 2023—so for over 18 months—the average wait time for a driving test in Portsmouth has been stuck around 24 weeks, but in 2019, it was eight weeks, so that is an increase of 200%. As we have heard, the true figure may well be bigger, because people are logging on and seeing 24 weeks and no appointments, so they could be waiting for longer.

In the Portsmouth test centre, the pass rate is about 50%, so the average person is taking two tests and leaving at least a year to be test ready. That is causing huge financial and emotional impacts. In some cases, it impacts on people’s opportunities to go to work and live their lives. As we have heard, there is sometimes a need to retake their theory test.

While many people are experiencing worse—I know we are not the lowest in the table—it is not a race to the bottom. My constituents have written to me to describe their distress at being unable to book a test in a reasonable time, and at the extortionate prices levied by touts who are reselling them, using the bot software that we have heard about. Like others, I welcome and echo the sentiments expressed about the Transport Secretary’s willingness to tackle that as a key priority for the Labour Government.

Additional funding is required to tackle the enormous backlog in tests. That could be directed towards making additional driving test slots available, recruiting and retaining more examiners, and putting in place laws to stop those bot blockers. By doing that, we could improve the technology of the booking system to detect those problems, because the chief executive of the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency, back in 2023, described the booking system as “end of life”. I would like to hear what we are able to do.

17:09

[Rosie Wrighting (Kettering) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) for securing this important debate on an issue that matters deeply to many of our constituents. The national waiting time for driving tests is about four and a half months, but during the summer in my constituency of Kettering, that rose to six months. Someone ready for their test in July might still be waiting to take it in January next year. I recently spoke to the chair of the Kettering district area Driving Instructors Association, who told me that his members were all saying the same thing. Both instructors and pupils are frustrated by the lack of tests available and how frequently they are cancelled. Driving test slots are released every Monday at 6 am, but my constituents have told me that by 6.10 am, they are all gone. They say that often some slots are booked and, as we have heard, advertised on social media for up to £250.

My constituents are trying to book their driving tests, not see Oasis. Between April 2023 and March this year, over 100,000 driving tests were cancelled, and 363 of those were at Kettering’s test centre. My constituents have told me that tests are regularly cancelled at a week’s notice, and some are cancelled as late as the day before. Many of us in the Chamber will remember how stressful learning to drive was and how nervous we were the day before our test. Those cancellations really amplify that. Pupils who are test ready then have to face their test being cancelled and the difficult choice of continuing to pay for lessons that they do not need or stopping and risking being rusty on the day of their test.

There is no doubt that learners across the UK are confused and angry. Many learners are young people who need a driving licence to access work opportunities. After the Tory cost of living crisis and the chaos we have inherited, it is just not fair that young people are not able to access the opportunities they need to get into work. Would the Minister outline for my constituents what work the Government are doing to boost the number of driving tests available for people in Kettering and across the UK, and to reduce the number of tests that are cancelled at the last minute? Let us steer our new Labour Government towards a future of accessible and reliable driving tests for all our constituents.

17:12

[Shaun Davies (Telford) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) on securing this debate. It is good to see the Minister in her place. Skills, opportunities and job creation are at the top of my agenda as the Member of Parliament for Telford, and I know that for many in this Chamber, that will be the same for them.

The Government are doing a lot of work to improve skills and opportunities for jobs and qualifications in places like my constituency, but the role that transport plays in that process cannot be overstated. As of September 2024, the average waiting time for a driving test in the midlands and the south-west was more than 21 weeks, or around 5 months, which is the highest of any region in the country. As we have heard, that average does not include the countless people who cannot book a test in the first place or who are put off by the number of delays. The chronic shortage of driving tests disproportionately affects young people and those most in need of access to training and jobs.

There are many parts of the country where having to wait months upon months for a driving test, or not getting one at all, is an insurmountable problem for young people because opportunities to walk or catch public transport simply do not exist. For young people in places like mine, the difference between waiting one month or one year for a driving test could mean not getting the qualification at their local college, or not being able to do the job that they have applied for and have been successful in obtaining, or it could mean worse outcomes for their families. I conducted a survey in my constituency on this issue, and over 40% of the constituents who responded said that they have had to book a driving test before they have taken a single driving lesson, which puts a huge amount of pressure on those young people. Around 50% of those who completed my survey said that the delays in booking a test made it less likely that they would start to learn to drive in the first place. It is a barrier to development, and it is a barrier to getting to work.

Unless this issue is addressed, the problem is only going to get worse. We know from the Government that economic growth is quite rightly the No. 1 mission, but breaking down barriers to opportunity should also be a priority. Getting a grip of the issue will impact both of those missions, and I ask the Minister whether she will create a taskforce so that she can hold these officials to account for improvement on this because, ultimately, it is a barrier to opportunity and employment for our young people.

17:15

[Kevin McKenna (Sittingbourne and Sheppey) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I would like to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) for enabling the debate to happen, and everyone who has raised issues today. I will not add too much to the detail of what people have said already, but I will talk a bit about the impacts on my constituents.

I also need to declare an interest. I have reached 50 years of age without learning to drive, but changes to my circumstances at the start of July mean that there is now good reason and a strong imperative to do so. When I researched it over the summer for myself and for my husband, it became very clear that it was not an easy and immediate option for either of us. That was not a surprise, however, given the amount of messages already in my inbox.

By way of an example, a constituent of mine, Jai, came to my surgery on behalf of his daughter, who is desperate to start a career as a police officer—a career that we deeply need in constituencies across the country. She cannot start the job because she needs to be able to drive; she will be working in shifts. All she could find was a driving test months down the line in Birmingham, which is 150 miles away. She is one of the luckier constituents, in that she could actually find one.

My constituency has some significant areas of deprivation. I do not know, Sir Roger, whether you have been looking at the data packs produced by the Thames Estuary growth board this week, but they show some significant transport blackspots in my constituency and in yours. They are often associated with the areas of deepest deprivation, where it takes hours to get to centres for employment. Although we need to improve public transport and accessibility routes, it will take time. Furthermore, in constituencies with rural areas such as mine and those of many others in the room, we will always need to drive cars—it is fundamental.

There have been improvements to the capacity and number of tests and of people carrying them out, but I want to know how sustainable that is and what the plan is for sustainability. I want to know what has been learned to see how we could do things differently in the future to make sure that we do not get into this mess again. There is also the issue of blatant and obvious ticket touting. The technology now available with bots and other online grifters is turning a public service into a way to make money in a piratical way. What are the lessons for other implementations of digital services by the Government as, increasingly, that is the way services will be delivered?

[Sir Roger Gale (in the Chair)]

Jas Athwal, you are on the list but you are not rising. Do you not wish to speak?

[Jas Athwal (Ilford South) (Lab)]

Thank you, Sir Roger. I cannot speak because I have not made my maiden speech. I will make an intervention very shortly, thank you.

17:18

[Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. It is a number of decades since I took my driving test in my constituency of Carlisle, and I was therefore very grateful to a constituent who recently attended my advice surgery to highlight the issues his business—he is a driving instructor—faced in securing driving tests in the Carlisle area. He went further and suggested a couple of potential measures that could be taken. I would be grateful if the Minister could perhaps comment on them in her closing remarks.

In Carlisle, we are looking at a wait time of approaching five months for a test at the Carlisle test centre. Just up the road in Dumfries, the wait is just over a month. My constituent asks, I feel very reasonably, why there cannot be greater flexibility in moving test assessors around neighbouring test centres. That seems very sensible. Similarly, I welcome the steps that have been taken to counter the bots that are snapping up the tests at great pace, but my constituent tells me that, in his case, two out of three of his computers have had their IP addresses blocked. When he contacts the DVSA to ask for them to be unblocked, the response is less than adequate. It would help legitimate businesses if they felt that the DVSA was responding promptly to their concerns.

[Jas Athwal]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) for securing such an important debate. Does my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (Ms Minns) agree that the elephant in the room is the industrial-scale fraud going on? In Carlisle, it takes five months to get a driving test. Similarly, in Ilford South, in east London, it takes about six months. But I rang a local driving instructor who has raised this issue with me, and I could get four tests in Dorchester, seven in Cheltenham, eight in Bromley and three in Erith. If I did not want to travel, I could pay a premium rate of £300 and it could be done at the local test centre 50 yards from my house. That is something we need to address.

[Ms Minns]

I entirely concur with my hon. Friend’s remarks. It is unacceptable that so many people are waiting so many months for their driving tests. In areas such as mine where there is little or no public transport, the economic impact of not being able to work is considerable. To help our Government, the DVSA could look at recording, when people are waiting for tests, whether they are required to drive for their job. That data is not currently captured, and it would be extremely beneficial to capture it.

On a related point, the DVLA is experiencing increasing delays in carrying out medical assessments on people who, for whatever reason, are temporarily unable to drive. One of my constituents has been waiting over 18 months for a routine medical assessment after having a stroke. That was a number of months after his own doctor had said he was now able to drive. I would be grateful if the Minister addressed that issue in her remarks.

17:22

[Mr Paul Kohler (Wimbledon) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I congratulate the hon. Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) on securing the debate. He and the other speakers have made excellent points.

As we have heard from Members across the House, it is taking far too long to secure a driving test, with centres fully booked up months in advance. Although the problem was exacerbated by covid, waiting lists were growing long before the pandemic, with 26 test centres axed since 2015. Yes, the lockdown made things worse, but things are still not improving and more should have been done by the previous Government to address the backlog.

As a result of the insufficient testing capacity within the system, as we have heard, a black market has arisen, with individuals forced to compete with bots to book the precious few slots available the moment they come online. My good friend Dino Muir, a driving instructor who covers Wimbledon, tells me that an increasing number of people are inevitably turning to those unscrupulous profiteers to beat the queues, and pay an extortionate price as a consequence. According to recent data from the RAC, people are paying over three times the normal price to book a driving test on the black market.

The situation is not limited to personal vehicles. My constituent George, a young junior doctor, told me yesterday of a friend of his, a newly trained paramedic, having to wait four months to take the C1 driving test that he needs to drive an ambulance. Data from my party recently revealed over 700 NHS staff across the country who, like George’s friend, are waiting to take that test. That is simply unacceptable. Providing driving tests in a timely manner should not be beyond any Government. Yes, they have inherited a failing system, but they now need to sort it out as these delays are affecting people’s lives and, as we have heard, damaging our economy.

In conclusion, I simply ask the Minister—I hope she knows that I hold her in high regard—what she is going to do to clear this backlog. Will more tests be made available, and will the Government do more to stop the bots booking up all the available slots? Urgent action is needed and I look forward to hearing her response.

17:24

[Greg Smith (Mid Buckinghamshire) (Con)]

Sir Roger, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today and I, too, congratulate the hon. Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) on securing this important debate.

Like other Members who have spoken this afternoon, I see the impact of this issue every week in my own inbox. Indeed, I saw it in the last Parliament, during the four and a half years that I spent on the Transport Committee, examining this issue as it evolved, particularly through the pandemic and the post-pandemic period.

Teenagers wait for months and sometimes over a year to get a driving test. People who have come to the United Kingdom to work also find themselves stuck in limbo, waiting for a test. I see the worrying knock-on effects for social and economic mobility for young people, particularly in rural areas such as mine in Mid Buckinghamshire, where freedom and opportunity very often come with the keys to a car and the ability to drive it.

As other Members have already mentioned, in rural areas public transport is often not a viable option for many journeys. Young people can be locked out of opportunities, even those within short distances of their own homes. Despite being qualified, young tradespeople—plumbers, electricians, carpenters and builders—cannot do their job without a car or a van. That creates a shortage in the local area, which in turn creates inflation for homeowners who cannot source labour for weeks or even months. It is not just individuals who suffer. I also see the impact on communities of young people and others who are stuck at home, unable to support elderly relatives and family members who require care. In some cases, they are unable to respond to a family emergency that could be a matter of life and death.

It is simply not tenable to stand by and let the situation continue, not when, as the RAC reports, unofficial websites are exploiting learner drivers to the tune of hundreds of pounds, which is more than three or four times the cost of an official DVSA booking. Other third parties are profiting from the backlog through cancellation alert schemes and apps that charge users a one-off fee to receive alerts every time a slot becomes available sooner than their original test booking. Sign-up fees can set drivers back nearly twice the amount of an official test, with VIP action and VIP packages. This problem requires very firm action.

As Government Members have criticised the previous Government, I will mention the fact that post-pandemic the Conservative Government took clear action. By the end of 2022, we had opened up nearly 10% more driving tests every week than had been the case before the pandemic, but despite the DVSA making 1 million extra tests available since the pandemic—1 million extra tests—waiting times have remained stubbornly high. That is partly because of the growing economy that the new Government have inherited and the demand that that growth has created for new tests—those are not my words, but the words of the chief executive of the DVSA.

A huge amount of work needs to be done, but I am concerned that we have seen frighteningly little urgency from the new Government to sort the problem out. Just last week at transport questions, the Secretary of State for Transport responded to a question about the crisis by suggesting that examiners would simply be deployed to areas with higher waiting times from areas with lower waiting times. If that is the extent of this Government’s plan—to move examiners around like a game of whack-a-mole—the backlogs will be going nowhere. We need to increase capacity, but according to the DVSA one of the main contributing factors to the lack of tests is “sustained industrial action”, which must be combated head-on.

Post-covid, the Passport Office showed the way: within two years of the pandemic finishing, thanks to a great new system and brilliant leadership, its backlog was smashed. There is hope that if the right measures are put in place and the Government really put their mind to it, these problems are not intractable and can indeed be solved.

[Shaun Davies]

Some of this has also been a long time coming. In Telford, for example, there are just two driving test assessors for the whole of the borough, which serves most of Shropshire—a population of about half a million. The previous Government should have done succession planning on driving test assessors and recruited more of them. Why did they not do so?

[Greg Smith]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. As I stressed, the pandemic blew a hole—it did so in virtually every walk of life—in the availability of driving tests. We got a million extra tests in place. Did every single test centre have exactly the resource it needed? The answer is clearly no. In the spirit of the debate, I am perfectly happily to accept that. I was on the Transport Committee for four and a half years, serving for some of that time alongside the now Minister, and we saw these problems emerging.

Governments are not able to solve every problem. The Minister will be happy to admit that she will not be able to solve every problem that comes across her desk but to solve the backlog that still persists from the pandemic as well as the growing demand for driving tests—that is not just my analysis; the DVSA acknowledges that there is a growing demand—greater resource is required and the whole system must be scaled up.

Where does this issue sit on the Minister’s priority list? Is it a matter of urgency for the new Government? Motorists up and down the country want to get their driving licences so that they can get on in life, access opportunities, achieve freedom and get the pleasure of driving in the United Kingdom. Or will this issue fall down the priority list and not get the action that thousands of people up and down this land want and deserve?

17:31

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Lilian Greenwood)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) on securing this debate and setting out so clearly the challenges his constituents face; I also thank all hon. Members who have contributed on behalf of learners and driving instructors in their constituencies. We heard compelling contributions from the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), my hon. Friends the Members for Hastings and Rye (Helena Dollimore), Reading Central (Matt Rodda), Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin), Kettering (Rosie Wrighting), Telford (Shaun Davies), Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Kevin McKenna), Carlisle (Ms Minns), the hon. Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler) and the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Mid Buckinghamshire (Greg Smith).

A full driving licence can give the holder so many opportunities. Drivers can access education and jobs. I recognise that being unable to book a test can hold people back, and that is unacceptable because we want to boost growth and opportunities. Driving gives freedoms to so many people up and down the country, although I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) that we need much better public transport, too, to give young people a choice of transport options. Not everyone is able to drive.

Nearly everyone who has a full driving licence will have a story about when they learned to drive and took their test. It is part of our culture and a rite of passage. However, the current situation for many learners in this country is simply unacceptable. That includes Molly, the constituent of my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell, and many others who have been referenced in this debate. Some have to travel long distances for a test or pay extra to try to get to the front of the queue. It takes far too long for those who are ready to take their driving test to book that practical test appointment. Drivers who are ready to pass should be able to take a test quickly and easily without paying more or travelling far. This issue is a priority that the Secretary of State and I take seriously. Members will recall that the Secretary of State made visiting DVSA in Bristol to discuss solutions an early priority. Work is ongoing and, yes, we are determined to solve it.

Practical test waiting times remain high because of increased demand. That demand has translated into the longest waiting times for driving tests in many years despite the DVSA making available a near-record 2 million tests last year. That pent-up demand has also led to a change in customer behaviour: the scramble for bookings often leads to undesirable outcomes. People book tests miles away from where they live just to get a test on the system in the hope of changing it for one closer to home at a later date. They cannot always do that, and sometimes they end up taking a test a long way from home, as hon. Friends have described. This change in booking behaviour prevents those ready to take their test from booking at their nearest test centre, where waiting times have gone up. As well as being inconvenient, so-called test tourism has an environmental impact.

An even bigger issue is learners taking a test before they are ready to pass. That seriously reduces their chances of passing, so they need to take a second and maybe even a third or fourth test. That creates extra demand and adds to the issue that DVSA is working so hard to resolve. It also creates potentially unacceptable additional risks for driving examiners and the public. Longer waiting times for a driving test also result in learners paying significantly more than the test fee to unscrupulous opportunists who are preying on them and taking advantage of their need to take a test as soon as they can.

In January 2023, DVSA changed its booking service terms and conditions to prevent anyone selling tests at a profit. Since then, DVSA has issued 313 warnings, 766 suspensions and closed 705 business accounts for misuse of its booking service. But there is more to do. All the while, that leaves people who are ready to pass with fewer options and a longer wait. We want learners who are ready to pass to be able to take their test quickly and easily at a convenient location. We do not want them to feel the need to make difficult decisions and compromises when taking a practical test.

We need concrete measures that will make a real difference. That is why we have asked the DVSA to look at how its tests are booked and managed. We want a test booking system that supports learners to plan the learning-to-drive process properly, that gives them the confidence that they will be able to get a test when they need one, that is easy to use and protects them from being ripped off.

We are working hard on all those measures. In the meantime, DVSA has been working hard to make more tests available. At any given time, around half a million tests are booked on the system. As a result of DVSA efforts to increase capacity, around 90,000 tests are available within a 24-week booking window, but more needs to be done. DVSA has recruited and is training 250 new driving examiners this year, and is working to recruit and train another 200, focusing on areas where demand is highest. Of course, we also need to retain those driving examiners. Previous poor industrial relations will not have helped in that regard.

If we are successful in recruiting those 450, that will be 20% more examiners overall, and a much-needed boost to test capacity for those learning to drive. I can update my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell on driving examiner numbers in his nearest test centres. In Slough, there are currently six. Based on our latest recruitment campaign, we are aiming to recruit four, to take that to 10. In Reading, there are two. There is one new entrant driving examiner awaiting a training course. The aim is to recruit a further five. In Farnborough, there are nine; the DVSA is aiming to recruit a further three to take that to 12. If we are successful in doing that, it will obviously make a big difference.

On top of that, the DVSA is continuing to conduct tests outside regular hours, including at weekends and on public holidays, and buying back annual leave from driving examiners. I cannot remember which hon. Friend asked me, but driving examiners do travel to other test centres with higher waiting times, to try to bring them down. Of course, I recognise that is not the long-term answer.

DVSA’s Ready to Pass? campaign supports learner drivers by offering free resources to assess their test readiness and encourage them to take more lessons, if required. When the pass rate is less than 50%, we know that too many people are taking the test a bit too speculatively, when they should be doing it when they are ready. I completely understand how this has come about, with people booking a test before they have even started taking any lessons. We also know that learners who undertake a mock test are far more likely to pass their test, so I urge hon. Members to direct their constituents to the Ready to Pass? campaign and its very useful advice.

It is probably outside the scope of today’s debate, but if my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle would like to pass on the details of her constituent who is facing a delay in renewing their licence and is waiting for medical tests, I will happily look into it.

[Jim Shannon]

I had a question about whether the Minister has had contact with the Minister for Infrastructure in the Northern Ireland Assembly to exchange ideas on how best to address these things together.

[Lilian Greenwood]

No debate would be complete without an intervention from the hon. Member. I have not yet had the opportunity to meet his colleague to discuss this issue, but I would be very willing to do so.

That reminds me that I wanted to respond to the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Reading Central. The DVSA is aware that the landlord of the current driving test centre in Reading has been granted planning permission to redevelop the site, which he referred to. The DVSA has identified a new location. It is in the early stages of negotiations, but it will confirm the new location as soon as it is able. I can assure my hon. Friend that I will continue to raise this point in my regular meetings with the chief executive of the DVSA.

In conclusion, the Department for Transport and the DVSA recognise the impact that long driving test waiting times are having on learner drivers and driving instructors. It is our priority to reduce driving test waiting times while upholding road safety standards. We want everyone to enjoy a lifetime of safe, sustainable driving. Finally, I wish Molly, the constituent of my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell, very best wishes when she gets the opportunity to take her test. I am sure we all hope that she passes the second time.

17:42

[Peter Swallow]

I start by thanking the Minister for the incredibly constructive way in which she has approached this debate and responded to the wide-ranging and serious issues raised by Members. It is heartening to hear her reiteration that this is a priority for the new Labour Government. That is demonstrated by the Secretary of State’s meeting with the CEO of the DVSA at such an early stage. I am grateful that Ministers have asked the DVSA to look at what more can be done to tackle test touts, and I welcome further updates in due course on this. Test touts are taking advantage, and we must crack down on them.

I also thank the Minister for updating us on the situation of employing more driving examiners, which will be very welcome indeed for my constituents. However, I would tempt her once again to examine opening a new test centre in Bracknell; even better than having more driving examiners would be having another place to put them. That would be really wonderful.

I thank hon. Members across the House for taking part in this debate. We heard about constituents affected across the country, from Strangford to Hastings and Rye, Reading Central, Portsmouth North, Kettering, Telford, Sittingbourne and Sheppey, Carlisle and Ilford South. That demonstrates the breadth of this issue.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered the availability of driving tests.

17:44

Sitting adjourned.