Driving Test Backlog to Remain Until Autumn Next Year, Says Transport Secretary
Quick Look
- The UK's driving test waiting times are not expected to be reduced to the target of seven weeks until autumn next year, according to the Transport Secretary.
- Despite previous targets, demand remains high, and new measures are being implemented to combat speculative booking and touting.
AI-generated summary
The driving test backlog won't be reduced to the target of seven weeks until autumn next year, the Transport Secretary has said.
The DVSA initially had a target of reducing the average waiting time to seven weeks by the end of 2025.
Alexander pushed this back to summer 2026, but admitted last November even that would not be possible.
She told a Committee of MPs on Wednesday that she understood people's frustrations and insisted the government has done a lot to tackle the issue.
However she added that "demand is still very high" and acknowledged there was still a lot of work to do.
The BBC has repeatedly heard from learner drivers frustrated by the difficulty of booking tests when, and where, they need them.
A BBC investigation in December found some driving instructors were being offered kickbacks of up to £250 a month to sell their login details to touts.
In the past few months, a number of changes to the test booking system have been introduced as part of efforts to combat the problem.
At the end of March, a new rule was brought in that only two changes could be made to a booked slot, for example the date or test centre location.
Since 12 May, only pupils have been able to book their driving test instead of anyone else, including instructors.
From 9 June, if you want to move your test, you can only move it to the three test centres closest to where your test is booked.
This is meant to stop learners booking the soonest slot available, wherever it is, then swapping it to a location closer to home.
The Transport Secretary told MPs it was too early to draw conclusions, but that there was already evidence of less speculative booking since the latest changes were brought in. For example, she said the volume of test swaps had gone down by 70%.
"My aspiration is to get us back down to a point where when someone is booking a test, they're not having to wait months on end to get one, which is the situation for some people in some locations at the moment," she said.
