Driving Tests: East Midlands
(asked on 21st April 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of driving test appointment capacity in (a) Leicester, (b) Leicestershire and (c) the East Midlands; and what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for practical driving tests in those areas.
The table below shows the March 2026 average waiting time for a car practical driving test. This data is based on the national average waiting time metric of when a minimum of 10% of test slots are available. The table also shows the number of tests booked and available at the driving test centres (DTCs) serving the East Midlands as of 20 April 2026.
Driving test centre (DTC) | March 2026 average car practical driving test waiting time in weeks | Booked tests (as of 20 April 2026) | Tests available in 24 week booking window (as of 20 April 2026) |
Ashfield | 24 | 2,828 | 182 |
Boston | 23.8 | 1,588 | 68 |
Buxton | 24 | 1,415 | 79 |
Chesterfield | 24 | 2,518 | 151 |
Derby (Alvaston) | 24 | 2,620 | 90 |
Grantham (Somerby) | 24 | 3,210 | 182 |
Hinckley | 24 | 1,437 | 102 |
Kettering | 20.6 | 2,477 | 99 |
Leicester (Cannock Street) | 24 | 3,665 | 186 |
Leicester (Wigston) | 24 | 5,220 | 237 |
Lincoln | 24 | 1,835 | 89 |
Loughborough | 24 | 917 | 51 |
Louth | 12 | 268 | 7 |
Melton Mowbray | 24 | 986 | 5 |
Northampton | 24 | 5,114 | 33 |
Nottingham (Chilwell) | 24 | 2,498 | 109 |
Nottingham (Colwick) | 24 | 4,288 | 200 |
Skegness | 20 | 938 | 9 |
Wellingborough | 24 | 556 | 3 |
Worksop | 19.2 | 2,961 | 185 |
Great Britain (National) | 22.1 | 653,269 | 52,578 |
Between June 2025 – March 2026, at the DTCs above, DVSA conducted 10,036 additional car practical driving tests in overtime, when compared to the equivalent overtime scheme between June 2024 – March 2025. This increase can largely be attributed to the additional test allowance scheme the agency introduced in June 2025.