Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for driving tests in (a) rural areas and (b) urban areas.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is upholding road safety standards while it works hard to reduce car practical driving test waiting times.

Measures in place to reduce waiting times for customers at all driving test centres (DTC), include the recruitment of new driving examiners (DE), conducting tests outside regular hours, including at weekends and on public holidays, and buying back annual leave from DEs.

DVSA also continues to deploy DEs from areas with lower waiting times into those where waiting times are longer.