Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate she has made of the number of additional driving tests that will be needed to reduce the average wait time for a test to the seven-week service standard.

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

Measures in place to reduce waiting times for customers at driving test centres, include the recruitment of driving examiners, conducting tests outside of regular hours, including at weekends and on public holidays, and buying back annual leave from driving examiners.

As of 7 October 2024, there were 571,047 car practical driving tests booked, and 89,349 driving tests available within the 24-week booking window. All available driving test appointments are shown on the live booking system, so the availability of test appointments continually changes. Test appointments are released on a rolling 24-week basis, and additional appointments are added as soon as they become available. Other candidates cancelling or rescheduling their test also free up appointments for others to book. Normal booking behaviour sees candidates move test appointments around routinely in line with their preferences. It is not therefore possible to give a meaningful assessment of the number of people waiting longer than 24 weeks for a test or how long a person waited between booking and taking a test.

DVSA continues to see high demand for driving tests, owing in part to a major shift in customer booking behaviour. Customers now book their car practical test far earlier in their learning journey, sometimes before they have even had a practical driving lesson.

The attached spreadsheet, WPQ00023819-00023823, shows the monthly average waiting time for a car practical driving test at each driving test centre and zone for each month since April 2015.