Driving Tests: Coronavirus

(asked on 6th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will extend the validity of driving theory tests to take into account the cancellation of practical driving tests during lockdown measures.


Answered by
Rachel Maclean Portrait
Rachel Maclean
This question was answered on 11th January 2021

The maximum duration of two years between passing the theory test and a subsequent practical test is in place for road safety reasons; to ensure that a candidate’s knowledge is current. This validity period is set in legislation and the Government has no current plans to lay further legislation to extend it.

It is important that road safety knowledge and hazard perception skills are up to date at the critical point that new drivers drive unsupervised for the first time. Those who have not been able to practice are most likely to see their knowledge base diminish and research suggests that this would be particularly harmful for hazard perception skills.

Ensuring new drivers have current relevant knowledge and skills is a vital part of the training of new drivers, who are disproportionality represented in casualty statistics. Taking all this into consideration, the decision has been made not to extend theory test certificates and learners will need to pass another theory test if their certificate expires.

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