Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress she has made on reducing the average waiting time for driving tests in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (b) Staffordshire.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is upholding road safety standards while it works hard to reduce car practical driving test waiting times. Significant progress has already been made as part of the DVSA’s 7-point plan to reduce waiting times with 1.95 million tests delivered last year nationally, but there is more work to be done.

The current waiting time for a car practical driving test at Newcastle-under-Lyme and Stafford is 24 weeks.

On the 23 April, the Secretary of State for Transport appeared before the Transport Select Committee and announced that DVSA will take further actions to reduce waiting times for all customers across Great Britain. Further information on these actions and progress on DVSA’s 7-point plan, which was set out last year, can be found on GOV.UK.

DVSA is continuing to recruit as many DEs as possible. As a result of recent recruitment campaigns, offers of employment have been made to two potential new driving examiners (DE), one for Stoke-on-Trent (Cobridge) and one for Newcastle-under-Lyme.