Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Richard Holden and Virendra Sharma

Thursday 24th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)]

8. What recent estimate he has made of the number of people waiting for a practical driving test.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Richard Holden)]

There are 95,000 available car test slots at the moment, an increase of over 80,000 in the past six months thanks to the hard work of the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency and our brilliant driving examiners.

[Mr Sharma]

I thank the Minister for his response. Data from the DVSA shows that ethnic minorities are far less likely to pass their tests than white candidates. What steps will his Department take to ensure that discrimination has no place in driving test centres?

[Mr Holden]

Discrimination has absolutely no place in driving test centres. I advise the hon. Gentleman to get in touch with me about any such incidents and I will take them up directly with the DVSA.