Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to increase the availability of practical driving tests.

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.

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 42,900 extra car test slots each month.

The DVSA has deployed all eligible managers and administrative staff back on the front line to do driving tests from the beginning of October until the end of March, which will create around 150,000 additional test slots.

As of 27 November 2023, there were 546,702 car practical driving tests booked, and 96,449 driving tests still available within the 24-week booking window.