Driving Tests: Waiting Lists

(asked on 21st April 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress he has made on tackling the backlog of practical driving test appointments.


Answered by
Trudy Harrison Portrait
Trudy Harrison
This question was answered on 26th April 2022

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:

  • offering a national recovery allowance and annual leave buy back to examiners;
  • asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests;
  • conducting out of hours testing, such as on public holidays and weekends; and
  • asking recently retired driving examiners to return to testing.

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.

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