Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department (a) is taking steps to reduce the time taken for to receive a practical car driving test slot in Portsmouth South constituency and (b) plans to increase the number of slots for such tests in that area.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is to reduce car practical driving test waiting times, whilst upholding road safety standards.

To increase the number of car practical driving test slots available, including in the Portsmouth South constituency, the DVSA deployed all 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. Eligible managers and administrative staff will continue to spend a portion of their time conducting car tests in the coming months to help continue to reduce waiting times.

To further increase the number of available test slots, including in the Portsmouth South constituency, it is conducting tests outside of regular hours, including at weekends and on public holidays, and buying back annual leave from driving examiners.

Since April 2021, measures put in place by the DVSA to reduce waiting times for its customers, together with the ongoing recruitment of driving examiners, is creating on average over 48,300 extra car test slots each month.

The average waiting time in March 2024 for a car practical driving test in Great Britain was 17.1 weeks, and in the Portsmouth South constituency it was 22.4 weeks. To address the continued high demand for tests in the South, the DVSA is asking driving examiners from areas with lower waiting times to travel and test in centres with higher waiting times. This is in addition to recruiting over 160 driving examiners in the areas where waiting times are highest, including the Portsmouth South constituency.

It is not possible to know the number of people waiting to be allocated a driving test slot.

It is not possible to know the time between requesting (seeking) and receiving (booking) a driving test slot, or the time between requesting (booking) and receiving (taking) a driving test slot.