Pressure is building on the government to solve the driving test waiting scandal.

As a result, the Transport Secretary has announced new measures to tackle the ongoing issues.

The announcements came as the minister faced the questioning on the issue by MPs in Parliament.

A solution?

The UK government has unveiled a comprehensive plan to address the ongoing backlog in driving test appointments, aiming to reduce average waiting times to seven weeks by summer 2026.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander announced the initiative during a parliamentary session today (April 23), acknowledging that the current average wait time of around 20 weeks is “totally unacceptable.”

In fact, the average waiting time in the UK has reached 22 weeks, and that’s despite the previous target of cutting wait times to seven weeks by December 2025.

This is now considered no longer feasible.

 

 

The plans

To tackle the issue, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) will implement several measures:​

• Recruitment of 450 Driving Examiners: The DVSA plans to bolster its workforce by hiring and training 450 new driving examiners to increase testing capacity. ​

• Additional Test Slots: Starting in May 2025, at least 10,000 extra driving test slots will be made available each month to accommodate the high demand.

• Overtime Incentives: Current examiners will be offered overtime pay to conduct additional tests, potentially adding up to 40 more tests per examiner. ​

• Booking System Reforms: The government will review and improve the driving test booking system to prevent exploitation by automated bots and third-party resellers. New terms and conditions will be introduced to ensure fair access to test slots.

• Cancellation Policy Changes: From April 8, 2025, learners must provide at least 10 working days’ notice to change or cancel a test without forfeiting the fee, up from the current three-day notice period. This aims to reduce last-minute cancellations and better utilize available slots. ​

Though the announcement has been welcomed by many, there are many concerns that similar pledges have failed to improve the situation.

For example, the recruitment of extra driving examiners has beenthwarted by poor levels of pay, as well as many existing examiners leaving their jobs due to workload pressures, poor pay and retirement.

Queuing

The backlog, which was inflamd by the Covid Pandem and test cancellations, has significantly impacted learner drivers, with some waiting up to six months for a test appointment.

DVSA has over 580,000 driving tests currently booked, and the situation has been exacerbated by the use of bots to secure and resell test slots at inflated prices by unscrupulous thrid parties.

Not only is this causing candidates to pay highly inflated process to secure a test, it is increasing the backlogs in some areas and leading to further disadvantages to those looking to legitimately book a test through the official website.

Fail and fail again

This government seven-point plan also includes consulting on increasing the waiting period for rebooking a test after multiple serious faults or no-shows, exploring changes to the 24-week advance booking limit, and expanding the “Ready to Pass?” campaign to ensure learners are adequately prepared before taking their test.

While these measures are expected to alleviate the backlog over time, officials acknowledge that the challenges are complex and will require sustained effort to resolve.

The DVSA aims to provide 1.95 million car driving tests between April 2024 and March 2025 as part of this initiative.