Driving Tests: Coronavirus

(asked on 8th February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people have had the two-year validity on their driving theory test expire since the beginning of the covid-19 outbreak.


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

A candidate whose theory test certificate expires will have received the service for which they paid the fee. If a practical test is already booked at the time when the theory test expires, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency will refund the fee for the practical driving test.

The maximum duration of two years between passing the theory test and a subsequent practical test is in place for road safety reasons. It is important that road safety knowledge and hazard perception skills are up to date at the critical point that they drive unsupervised for the first time. Those with theory test certificates expiring may have taken their test in early 2019. Since then, their lessons and practice sessions will have been significantly curtailed during recent lockdowns and it is likely that their knowledge base will have diminished. Research suggests that this would be particularly harmful for hazard perception skills, a key factor in road safety.

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.

A total of 195,814 theory test certificates expired between the period of 25 March 2020 and 31 December 2020 without a practical test pass.

In the normal course of events, on average, 14,000 candidates let their certificate expire each month.

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