Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he has taken to reduce driving test waiting times in the last 12 months; and what data the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has collected to assess the effectiveness of such steps.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has taken a number of steps to reduce driving test waiting times in the last 12 months. These include:

• recruiting additional driving examiners. Last year, there were 193 new examiners who started work at various test centres across the country. This year DVSA has recruited another 48 examiners and made employment offers to another 110 people.

• Launching an initiative to offer additional hours to examiners over the summer months, including weekends and bank holidays. So far, a quarter of driving examiners have signed up to take part in this initiative to help bring waiting times down further.

• We recognise that more work needs to be done to drive down waiting times and we are investigating all avenues to do so.