Driving Tests: Waiting Lists

(asked on 8th January 2025) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of waiting times for practical driving tests on the duration of the validity of driving theory tests.


Answered by
Lilian Greenwood Portrait
Lilian Greenwood
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 14th January 2025

It is important road safety knowledge and hazard perception skills are up to date at the critical point a person drives unsupervised for the first time.

The maximum duration of two years between passing the theory test and a subsequent practical test is in place to ensure a candidate’s road safety knowledge and ability to identify developing hazards is current. This validity period is set in legislation and the Government has no current plans to lay further legislation to extend it.

Ensuring new drivers have current relevant knowledge and skills is a vital part of the preparation of new drivers, who are disproportionality represented in casualty statistics. Learners will therefore need to pass another theory test if their certificate expires.

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