Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many full-time equivalent driving examiners recruited by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency were (a) in post and (b) delivering practical car driving tests in January 2026.

The national average waiting time for a practical car driving test in January 2026 was 21.2 weeks.

Data for January 2026 on the number of full-time equivalent driving examiners recruited by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), that are in post and delivering practical car driving tests, will not be available until later in February.

As of 30 December 2025, there were 1,618 full-time equivalent (FTE) driving examiners (DE) in post. Of those, 1,542 FTE were available to deliver practical car driving tests.