Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 March 2021 to Question 159299, if his Department will provide funding to cover all or part of the re-sit fee for learners whose driving theory test certificate has expired during the covid-19 lockdown.

There are no current plans to provide funding or waive the charge of a theory test for those whose theory test certificates have expired, given that candidates will have already received the service for which they paid.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) pays its contractor, Pearson, per theory test delivered. If candidates were exempted from having to pay for a retake then the DVSA and in turn other fee payers would incur these costs. This would be unfair to fee payers who would not benefit from the arrangement.

In addition, applications for a re-test would need to be validated and systems amended to remove the requirement for payment in these cases. The DVSA’s focus should rightly be on developing solutions to address the backlog of practical driving tests that has arisen as a result of the pandemic.