Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent the reselling of block-booked driving tests.

As of April 2025, the average waiting time for a car practical driving test in Great Britain was 22.3 weeks.

The attached Excel document shows the average waiting time for a car practical driving test at each driving test centre in Scotland, as of 26 May 2025.

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 23 April, the Secretary of State for Transport appeared before the Transport Select Committee and announced that DVSA will take further actions to reduce waiting times for all customers across Great Britain.

Further information on these actions and progress of DVSA’s plan to reduce driving test waiting times, which was announced in December 2024, can be found on GOV.UK.

To ensure fairness for everyone wanting to book a practical driving test, DVSA continues to work hard to combat the unscrupulous practice of reselling tests across the country and has announced further measures to review the driving test booking system.

DVSA deploys enhanced bot protection to help stop automated systems from buying up tests unfairly. These applications, however, are constantly evolving and changing, and DVSA’s work on this is ongoing.

On 28 May 2025, DVSA launched a public consultation on improving the rules for booking car driving tests. Views are being sought from the driver training industry, learner drivers and other interested parties on changes which aim to prevent learner drivers being exploited by those who resell tests at a higher price.

This consultation follows the agency’s recent call for evidence. The call for evidence, about the rules and processes for booking and managing practical car driving tests, received almost 27,000 responses.

On 6 January 2025, DVSA introduced new terms and conditions for use of the service driving instructors and trainers use to book and manage practical driving tests for their pupils. Since this change DVSA has issued 44 warnings, 120 suspensions, and closed 270 business accounts.