Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 26 March 2026 to Question 122319, what performance metrics the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency uses to assess the effectiveness of recruitment campaigns for driving examiners; and what the outcomes were for each campaign in terms of (a) applications received, (b) candidates progressing to interview and (c) appointments made.

On 31 March 2026, the Driver and Vehicle Service Agency (DVSA) had 1,604 full-time equivalent driving examiners (DE), the highest number since 2018 and 188 more DEs than on 30 April 2025.

The table below shows the number of total completed applications DVSA received, the number of applicants invited to interview, the number of applicants invited to the driving assessment stage, applicants recruited and placed on a training course and how many applicants successfully passed training for the 10 recruitment campaigns in each of the three financial years to date:

[note 1] - No of applicants invited to interview and driving assessment are the same as this was an assessment centre.

[note 2] - 26 applicants booked to a future training course. No applicants from this campaign have yet passed training.

[note 3] – DVSA continue to recruit from merit lists for these live recruitment campaigns. The final numbers for the recruitment campaigns shown are therefore not yet known.

For all Civil Service roles, after starting an application, an applicant must complete initial forms with their personal details and to confirm such details as to their right to work in the UK. For a DE role, there are further questions to assess eligibility for the role, including the age of the applicant, and whether they hold a driving licence. If an applicant meets the necessary eligibility requirements, they are then asked to complete a full application form for DVSA to sift and progress to interview if successful.