Promise of seven-week driving test wait in Great Britain unlikely to happen until 2027'

"Plans to cut the wait for a driving test to seven weeks by the end of the year will not be achieved until November 2027, an audit report has found. Only a net 83 more driving test examiners have been hired despite 19 recruitment campaigns since 2021, with the average wait for a practical test now at 22 weeks across Great Britain, according to the National Audit Office (NAO)."

"The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), which sets tests and issues licences, estimates that about 680,000 people who have passed their driving theory test may not yet have managed to book their practical test. The government announced plans last month to ban bots and third parties from booking tests, to help tackle the backlog and crack down on the hidden market where touts resell test slots at inflated prices up to eight times the 62 fee, the NAO said."

"The NAO found that while the DVSA had launched a plan last year to slash the wait for tests to seven weeks by the end of 2025, it did not now expect to achieve it for two more years. It said that while a large backlog of driving tests, about 1.1m, had built up during the pandemic, the DVSA had been slow to react to other factors, such as a rise in people taking theory tests, and bots booking up available slots. The agency still struggled to recognise the level of demand, it found."

"The report said many examiners were quitting amid concerns over safety and low rates of pay, meaning that the recruitment target of 400 net additional examiners had ended up at just 83. The NAO noted that the DVSA was also making a loss of 24 on every test, a deficit of 44m over the year, because the fee charged had not changed since 2009."

Plans to cut driving test waits to seven weeks will not be achieved until November 2027. The average wait for a practical test is now 22 weeks across Great Britain. Only a net 83 additional examiners have been hired despite 19 recruitment campaigns since 2021, leaving examiner numbers far short of targets. Around 680,000 people who have passed theory tests may still be unable to book practical tests and about 70% of centres are fully booked for the maximum 24 weeks ahead. Bots and touts have exacerbated the backlog. The DVSA is losing money on each test because fees have not changed since 2009.

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