Driving test delays: The problem explained and how the backlog will be reduced

Learner drivers face a 24-week wait for a driving test at nearly half of the country’s test centres (48 per cent). The national average wait is 20 weeks, up even from the 17 weeks new drivers faced when testing resumed after the various Covid lockdowns in spring 2021. So, what has gone wrong?

How big is the problem?

Enormous. The backlog for practical driving tests is bigger than it has ever been, despite the number of tests taken falling in the first three months of 2025.

RAC Foundation analysis of figures from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), which is responsible for driving tests, found there were 466,000 practical tests taken in January to April this year. That compares with 560,000 a year earlier, a drop of 17 per cent.

On March 31, there were 583,000 future tests booked – the highest on record. “The test backlog is stuck stubbornly at a post-Covid high,” RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said.

Why is it so difficult to get a driving test?

There are a number of reasons. Driving lessons and tests were stopped for months during the pandemic lockdowns. This caused a backlog of tests to build up.

Because of the difficulty in booking tests, the DVSA says drivers are doing so before they are ready to take them. The agency even claims that nearly one in 10 tests (8.2 per cent) are booked before drivers have even started taking lessons.

The system is also open to abuse in various areas. Until recently you could cancel a driving test with only three days’ notice without any financial penalty.

And brokers abuse the rules designed to allow driving instructors to book tests for their pupils. The brokers use automated software to block book tests the instant they become available. These bots book quicker than individuals can, so when the dates are released, regular learner drivers find there are none left.

The brokers then sell the tests to the same desperate learners they’ve competed with for anywhere between £100 and £200. Buying the test from the DVSA directly costs only £62.

Lastly, there’s a shortage of driving examiners, while DVSA test cancellations don’t help. Between October 2023 and March 2024, the DVSA said it made an extra 145,000 tests available. But up to March 2024, 65,534 of these were cancelled due to annual leave, industrial action, bad weather, examiner sickness and coronavirus.

What does this mean for learners?

In short, a world of pain. If they can book a test at a convenient time, it may well not be at their local test centre. And if they fail the test, they often face an agonising wait for a retake. DVSA data show that 182 of the country’s 380 test centres had a 24-week wait in February this year.

The AA Driving School’s Lorna Lee said: “It’s extra pressure on people when they are taking their tests, because they know if they don’t pass they’re going to have to wait a long time to take a retest.

“If this happens, it’s also extra financial pressure, because they will typically need to take a few extra lessons in that interim period to keep their skills topped up before the retest.”

Why is there a shortage of driving examiners?

On the face of it, being a driving test examiner should be an attractive role. It’s a civil servant job with a starting salary of £29,525, no two days are the same, while the posts involves you being out and about rather than driving a desk.

But independent driving instructor Karen Bransgrove, who used to examine post-test trainers, says: “It’s not a job for everyone and there are safeguarding issues. You are dealing with the public and when as an examiner you are giving people a result they might not want to hear, they can kick off.

“People often turn up to tests and they’re not with a driving instructor or they might have a driving licence from another country, so as an examiner you might be getting into a car with someone who hasn’t had a lesson and doesn’t know what’s expected of them. It can be a tough job, particularly so depending on where you are geographically.”

There’s a cunning plan…

Former transport secretary Louise Haigh said last summer that tackling the massive backlog was “a key priority” for the Government, and the DVSA has come up with a seven-point plan to address the problem.

Its first point is to recruit 450 new driving examiners in the UK. It also wants to review and improve the rules for booking driving tests and introduce tougher terms and conditions to prevent the aforementioned brokers booking tests for profit.

It will also consult on new proposals to increase the amount of time between failing one test and booking another, including making people who verbally or physically abuse their driving examiner wait longer.

In addition, the amount of time it takes to cancel a test without being charged increased on April 8 to 10 days, to deter last-minute cancellations. The DVSA will also explore changing the 24-week limit that you can book tests and continue running its Ready to Pass? campaign, which encourages learners to prepare more rigorously for their test.

But Bransgrove believes the DVSA has a tough job on its hands. She says: “There is a drop-out rate from examiner training, so the Government will be spending money recruiting and training examiners who may then leave during the course, or who start the job and find it’s not for them.

“Whether the recruitment scheme is a success depends on how much the Government is prepared to put in to making it work. I think they may have to pay people more to do the job.”

The DVSA’s aim is to reduce the nationwide average waiting time for driving tests to seven weeks by December 2025. Currently, only 14 test centres (3.7 per cent) hit that target. The DVSA added: “We continue to work on implementing our seven-point plan to reduce waiting times and encouraging learner drivers to only book their driving test when they are ready.”