Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many HGV driver tests can be carried out each week; and what comparative assessment he has made of that number and the weekly number of those tests undertaken before the covid-19 outbreak.

A vocational test slot is a slot that could be used for either a heavy goods vehicle (HGV) or passenger carrying vehicle (PCV) test. It would be for the trainer to book the slot and determine the category of test he/she wants to use that slot for.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has been making an average of 3,000 practical vocational test slots available each week; this compares to 2,000 test slots available pre-pandemic, and there is currently spare capacity. It is not possible to know how many of the 3,000 vocational test slots will be used for HGV or PCV tests.