The Government has dropped its deadline for reducing car driving test waiting times to seven weeks or fewer.

It has prompted renewed criticism from the driving instruction profession over the continuing backlog.

The revelation was contained within the DVSA Annual Accounts.

Hidden targets

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) no longer has a fixed date by which it must bring waiting times down from their current average of almost six months.

Although the seven-week target itself remains in place, the DVSA has now confirmed that there is “no date set” for achieving a national car practical driving test waiting time of seven weeks or less.

It comes after repeated failures to hit the target, or make significant inroads into the record-level waiting times for practical driving tests in Britain.

The move raises significant concerns for driver trainers and candidates.

In practice, the DVSA no longer has a fixed deadline for bringing waiting times down from their current level, which remains considerably higher than the Government’s stated ambition.

The seven-week target was introduced as part of efforts to recover from the huge disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, despite repeated measures to increase testing capacity and reform the booking system, demand has continued to outstrip the number of available appointments.

 

 

Still waiting

The latest figures show that half of learners taking their test in July 2026 waited no more than 11.1 weeks, while appointments being released during September were already extending into February 2027.

However, fr many the wait can be over 20 weeks.

ADI representative groups, including NASP (National Associations Strategic Partnership), have questioned how the DVSA can now be held accountable for progress when there is no longer a deadline against which its performance can be measured.

Carly Brookfield, Chief Executive of the DIA, said: “The sad fact is DVSA can’t seem to meet the targets it sets itself, and removing the deadline does nothing to solve the problem. It simply removes another measure against which the agency can be held accountable.”

Long covid

The backlog has remained one of the biggest challenges facing the driver training industry since the pandemic.

Although the DVSA has conducted record numbers of tests, the increase in capacity has struggled to keep pace with demand.

Almost two million practical tests were conducted during 2025/26, the highest annual total since 2007.

Yet waiting times have remained lengthy, with learners in some parts of the country facing considerably longer waits than those elsewhere.

The DVSA has introduced several measures intended to make the system fairer and improve availability.

Learners are now required to book and manage their own car tests, while limits have been placed on how many times a test can be changed and where it can be moved.

The agency has also recruited additional examiners and even brought in Ministry of Defence driving examiners to conduct civilian tests.

Professional rethink

However, increasing capacity alone has not, and will not, resolve the underlying problems, especially when the churn of examiners means nearly as many leaving the profession as there are joining.

Alongside this, concerns have been raised about examiner deployment, test availability, changes to the booking system, and the effect of lengthy waits on learners and professional instructors.

Brookfield believes the profession itself needs greater involvement in deciding how to improve the system if we want to see better results.

“We need to see much stronger engagement with the profession and a clear plan for how DVSA is actually going to make progress,” she said. “Removing dates and deadlines cannot become a substitute for delivering results.”

Backlogged

For driving instructors and candidates, long waits create practical and financial difficulties.

Learners can remain in training for months after reaching a suitable standard, while cancelled or repeatedly rearranged tests disrupt lesson planning.

Instructors may also have to provide additional refresher lessons when pupils have been waiting for lengthy periods.

However, there is evidence that the backlog itself may be influencing pass rates.

More than 1 million candidates passed their practical test in 2025/26, compared with 998,578 who failed, the first time recorded passes have exceeded failures.

The reasons for the improved pass rates are unclear, but longer waits mean learners can spend considerably more time practising before their test.

 

 

Vague outlook

The Government’s decision does not formally abandon the seven-week ambition, but it removes the certainty of when it is expected to be achieved.

For learners and instructors who have already endured years of delays, the concern will be that an open-ended target could mean the seven-week waiting time becomes an aspiration rather than a measurable commitment, leaving the industry waiting for a clear plan to bring supply and demand back into balance.