Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding he has made available to increase capacity at heavy goods vehicle testing centres to compensate for driving test slots lost during the covid-19 outbreak.

Driver testing has restarted and the DVSA is conducting around 3,000 vocational tests per week. DVSA is increasing the number of tests available through extended operating hours and ensuring all staff who can conduct a driving test are doing so.

DVSA continue to work with the driver training industry to understand demand, respond to geographical peaks and identify issues in booking tests. DVSA has recruited 300 new car examiners which will ease the demand on examiners who are able to conduct vocational tests. They are also looking at other options for increasing vocational resource.