Driving Test Availability: South-east Debate
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Monica Harding
Main Page: Monica Harding (Liberal Democrat - Esher and Walton)Department Debates - View all Monica Harding's debates with the Department for Transport
Driving Test Availability: South-east
Monica Harding Excerpts(1 day, 6 hours ago)
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Dr Pinkerton
I am incredibly grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for that very important observation. The plight of bots stealing places from under people on a Government-registered system strikes me as utterly inappropriate. I have heard internal stories that the DVSA has been in a state of upendedness for some time. I am also grateful to him for his observation about Loveday Ryder.
As of June, the average waiting time for a practical driving test stood at about 22 weeks, although the nearest centres for my constituents, in Farnborough and Guildford, reported waits of 24 weeks. Many have told me that they have waited up to a year to secure a test slot.
Monica Harding (Esher and Walton) (LD)
I am one of those parents who scrambles for the driving test, and many of my constituents have written to me about this issue. For Martha in Molesey it took more than 15 months, and for Evan in Thames Ditton it took more than six months. Last week, one of the driving instructors in my constituency told me that a lack of tests affects every single one of their students In 2023, the DVSA temporarily moved a significant amount of its workforce into examiner roles, and that enabled 150,000 test slots over six months. Does my hon. Friend agree that that is the way to go—
Carolyn Harris (in the Chair)
Order. I remind hon. Members that interventions are meant to be just that: a short intervention, not a speech.