Driving Tests: Coronavirus

(asked on 27th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of (a) extending driving theory certificates that will expire or have expired before individuals have had the opportunity to take a driving test due to covid-19 restrictions and (b) offering (i) monetary compensation and (ii) free driving theory tests to those individuals.


Answered by
Rachel Maclean Portrait
Rachel Maclean
This question was answered on 3rd February 2021

There are no plans to make compensation available to those whose theory test certificates have expired. The cost of paying any compensation would fall to the DVSA, and to the feepayer, were the DVSA to put in place arrangements to pay it. This would be unfair to other fee payers who would not benefit from such an arrangement.

In addition, applications for a re-test would need to be validated and systems amended to remove the requirement for payment in these cases. The DVSA’s focus should rightly be on developing solutions to address the backlog of practical driving tests that has arisen as a result of the pandemic.

Reticulating Splines