Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has been made on opening a driving test centre at Whitchurch Civic Centre in the last six months.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has received an informal offer to use Whitchurch Civic Centre but there are a number of factors that need to be resolved before an agreement can be reached, including a change of use planning application.

Driving tests were disrupted during the pandemic. The DVSA is working hard to increase the number of practical driving test appointments across Great Britain, including Shropshire. Measures in place to do this include:

• recruiting more than 300 driving examiners;
• offering a national recovery allowance and annual leave buy back to driving examiners;
• asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests where capacity allows;
• conducting out of hours testing (such as on public holidays and weekends); and
• resuming the number of driving tests per day to seven for each full-time examiner.