Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make as assessment of the potential merits of preventing automated BOTS from booking driving tests on the DVLA website.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) does not employ, encourage or licence anyone to provide a driving test cancellation checking service. The Apps/BOTS are not approved by the DVSA as they make it harder for candidates to get a test and can also result in people paying more for a test than the official test fee. Using such services also means that any changes to the driving test may not necessarily be relayed to the candidate.

The DVSA is taking steps to block cancellation services from accessing its booking system. As well as checking if the user accessing the system is human, using CAPTCHA checks, the DVSA has introduced Advanced Bot Protection into its firewall, which will allow the DVSA to have greater scrutiny of traffic on its booking services.

The DVSA will continue to inform candidates of the official channels for booking a test and has taken measures to encourage learners to use the official booking website by ensuring that it appears as high as possible on popular search engines and by promoting the official website on social media.