Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to take steps to improve the equitable distribution of practical driving test slots in (a) England and (b) Leicester East constituency.

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

On the 18 December, DVSA set out further plans to reduce driving test waiting times across the country. These steps include recruiting 450 Driving Examiners (DEs) and improving rules for booking driving tests. Full details of these steps can be found on GOV.UK.

As part of recent recruitment at Driving Test Centres (DTC) that serve the Leicester East constituency, DVSA has just concluded a campaign at Leicester Cannock Street DTC and has made employment offers to successful candidates.

In addition to the recruitment plans at Cannock Street DTC, DVSA has been growing the teams at surrounding sites which will help to balance the demand across the Leicestershire area.

At Leicester Wigston DTC, two new DEs were recruited last year, with an additional new entrant due to start later this month. At Loughborough DTC, two new DEs also joined last year, and the DVSA is making offers to two more potential new entrants from the most recent recruitment campaign.