Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has plans to expand testing capacity at Llanelli Driving Test Centre to tackle the backlog of tests since March 2020.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) recognises there is a high demand for learners who are wanting to take their practical driving test following the suspension of routine driver training and testing during the pandemic.
The DVSA is working hard to provide as many practical driving test appointments as possible and has a number of measures in place to do this.
These include:
As of 31 March 2022, driving test waiting times at Llanelli is 3 weeks.
The DVSA has a live recruitment campaign covering Llanelli, and has recently completed a campaign to recruit Welsh speaking driving examiners. The DVSA is also launching a new national campaign to recruit an extra 161 examiners across Great Britain to help meet the increasing demand for driving tests. This is in addition to its previous campaign to recruit more than 300 additional examiners.