Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average waiting time was between booking and taking a driving test in Hitchin constituency in the latest period for which data is available; and how many people are waiting to take a test in that constituency.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) priority is to reduce car practical driving test waiting times, whilst upholding road safety standards. To increase the number of available test slots, it is conducting tests outside of regular hours, including at weekends and on public holidays, and buying back annual leave from driving examiners.

To increase the number of car driving test slots, the DVSA deployed eligible managers and administrative staff back on the front line to do driving tests from the beginning of October 2023 until the end of March 2024, which created over 145,000 additional test slots. Driving examiners from areas with lower waiting times continue to travel and test in those centres with longer waiting times. This is in addition to the DVSA recruiting additional examiners across the country into areas where waiting times are highest.

The DVSA is unable to calculate the waiting time between booking and taking a driving test.

The table below shows the June 2024 average waiting time, number of booked car practical driving tests, and available tests as of 22 July 2024 at the test centres that serve the constituency of Hitchin: