Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency's plan to recruit 300 additional driving examiners, how many additional driving instructors been recruited as on 20 September 2022.

Driver testing services were significantly disrupted during the pandemic, which has led to a high demand for learners who are now wanting to take their driving test.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is working hard to provide as many practical driving test appointments as it can, including recruiting more than 300 driving examiners across Great Britain. The first recovery recruitment campaign was launched on 10 February 2021. Since then, 285 driving examiners have entered testing, of which 20 were in Scottish test centres.

In addition, there are 147 recruits who are in the process of being trained to become driving examiners, of which 18 are for test centres in Scotland.

The DVSA’s examiner recruitment campaigns continue to be successful but, like many employers, the DVSA is finding the job market extremely competitive. As it moves through each recruitment campaign, the DVSA will continually review and make changes and improvements to its recruitment and selection process, and training courses.

On 20 September 2022, the DVSA launched its latest campaign to recruit another 136 driving examiner posts; 8 of these posts are intended for test centres in Scotland.

Since the commencement of the recovery recruitment campaigns, waiting times for car practical driving tests have reduced by 1.5 weeks (based on the DVSA’s data at the end of August 2022).