Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce driving test waiting times.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) recognises there is a high demand for learners wanting to take their practical driving test following the suspension of routine driver training and testing during the pandemic.

The DVSA is working hard to provide as many practical driving test appointments as possible and has a number of measures in place to do this. These include offering a national recovery allowance and annual leave buy back to examiners, asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, and conducting out of hours testing (such as on public holidays and weekends).

The DVSA is also continuing with its recruitment campaign which has reached its next phase to recruit more driving examiners across Great Britain to meet the overall aim of recruiting more than 300 additional examiners.

The average waiting time for a practical driving test in London and the South East is currently 13 weeks. Waiting times will vary at each driving test centre as new tests are made available. To help reduce waiting times in this region the DVSA has specifically advertised for six additional driving examiners in Slough, an increase of 60% and for 89 examiners across London and the South East. The agency is working to increase examiner resource in this region by approximately 23%.