Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase capacity at testing facilities for bus drivers.

The Department is committed to encouraging new entrants to the bus driving profession. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is working with the Government to implement a number of measures to significantly boost testing availability. These measures include eliminating tests to tow a trailer; streamlining the process of securing a licence for certain vehicles; and speeding up the heavy goods vehicle driving test itself by removing the off-road manoeuvres element (reversing exercise) and allowing it to be assessed separately by the driver training industry. These changes will create an extra 50,000 tests a year.

The DVSA has also increased test availability by asking all those qualified to conduct vocational tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, and conducting out of hours testing where it can and where there is demand. The DVSA is also offering overtime and annual leave buy back to examiners as well as recruiting an additional 40 new vocational examiners across Great Britain.