An replace from DVSA
DVSA stays dedicated to decreasing driving take a look at ready occasions.
The common ready time for a automobile sensible driving take a look at as of the tip of Might 2025 is:
- Nice Britain – 22.5 weeks
- Wales – 19.1 weeks
- Scotland – 21 weeks
- England – 22.8 weeks
The common ready time is the variety of weeks earlier than 10% of checks can be found to guide.
DVSA’s figures for common driving take a look at ready occasions stay right on the time of publication. These are official statistics and no different legitimate measures for driving take a look at ready occasions exist.
DVSA launched its session on bettering driving take a look at reserving guidelines on 28th Might 2025. The session closes on 9th July 2025.
Loveday Ryder, DVSA Chief Govt, stated: “We’ve been working tirelessly to convey down the driving take a look at ready occasions. To assist sort out this, in December 2024 we introduced a brand new plan, on which we’re making good progress.
“DVSA is at the moment operating a session on enhancements we will make to the take a look at reserving system, which is able to assist us plan our subsequent steps.
“DVSA’s objective is to make reserving a driving take a look at simpler and fairer for everybody whereas stopping extreme fees for learner drivers. GOV.UK is the one official technique to guide your sensible driving take a look at.”
Additional Data
Session on bettering automobile driving take a look at reserving guidelines
The session asks for views on:
- Who needs to be allowed to guide and handle driving checks
- If we should always restrict or take away the power to swap checks between completely different learners or change take a look at areas
Quite than creating new legal guidelines particularly banning the reselling of checks, the session focuses on proposals to alter how the system works to assist forestall reselling. That is preferable because it:
- stops the issue at its supply fairly than simply the signs
- can be extra instantly efficient than enforcement after resales occur
- makes the system fairer for all learners with out creating extra regulatory burden
The modifications proposed would make take a look at reselling virtually unattainable, whereas preserving authentic makes use of of the system by learners and instructors.
Extra particulars in regards to the session can be found on GOV.UK.
Sensible driving take a look at ready occasions
Automobile sensible take a look at ready occasions started to extend in 2020 after a number of months of driving checks being suspended, a sustained enhance in demand and low learner driver confidence in driving take a look at availability, leading to a change of their reserving behaviour. This variation in behaviour has endured.
Many learner drivers guide their checks early of their studying journey. On common it takes learners drivers 6 months or longer to achieve the on-road expertise wanted to be able to drive safely on their very own as soon as they’ve handed.
DVSA supplied over 1.95 million sensible driving checks within the yr 2024-5.
Measures to cut back ready occasions
The Secretary of State introduced additional motion to assist scale back ready occasions on 23 April 2025.
These included:
- A quick-tracked launch for our deliberate session on placing a cease to the exploitation of learner drivers – launched on 28 Might 2025
- Incentivised extra testing gives for driving examiners – doubtlessly creating hundreds of additional checks monthly
- Doubling our everlasting coaching capability for brand new driving examiners – which means extra can begin finishing up driving checks sooner
- A name for volunteers from these at the moment in different roles (however certified to look at) to hold out sensible driving checks
The Division for Transport’s press launch will be seen right here: Transport Secretary acts to make hundreds of additional driving checks out there every month – GOV.UK
This adopted a plan introduced in December 2024 to cut back ready occasions.
These measures are:
- Recruit and practice 450 driving examiners.
- Evaluation and enhance the principles for reserving driving checks.
- Introduce more durable phrases and situations for the service driving instructors use to guide and handle automobile driving checks for his or her pupils.
- Seek the advice of on new proposals to extend the ready time to guide one other take a look at in sure conditions.
- Improve the quantity of discover you have to give to alter or cancel a automobile driving take a look at with out dropping the payment to 10 days.
- Discover altering the present 24-week restrict on how far forward automobile driving checks will be booked.
- Encourage learner drivers to be higher ready for his or her driving take a look at by means of the ‘Able to Move?’ marketing campaign.
DVSA’s press launch will be seen right here: DVSA units out plan to cut back driving take a look at ready occasions – GOV.UK
DVSA’s progress to this point in opposition to the measures:
- DVSA’s newest driving examiner recruitment marketing campaign has lately closed, and we’re at the moment processing the purposes
- the introduction of more durable phrases and situations for driving instructors who can guide checks for his or her pupils (6 January)
- modifications to the quick discover cancellation interval applied (8 April)
- following a name for proof (answered by over 27,000 folks), DVSA launched its session on 28 Might on the reserving of driving checks
In January 2023, DVSA modified the phrases and situations for utilizing the reserving service to assist forestall anybody from promoting checks at revenue.
Between 9 January 2023 and 5 January 2025, the DVSA issued 350 warnings, 792 suspensions, and closed 813 enterprise accounts for misuse of its reserving service.
On 6 January 2025 ,DVSA launched new phrases and situations to be used of the service driving instructors and trainers use to guide and handle sensible driving checks for his or her pupils.
Since this transformation DVSA has issued 73 warnings, 217 suspensions, and closed 358 enterprise accounts.
