Committee publication · Correspondence · 5 March 2025 · HC 437
Letter from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Roads, Department for Transport relating to driving tests availability, dated 25 February 2025
From: Transport Committee
Inquiry: Driving tests availability
Summary
Letter from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Roads responding to Transport Committee queries on driving test availability and examiner recruitment. Outlines DVSA progress on recruiting 450 driving examiners (225 onboarded, 116 now delivering tests), systemic improvements to test booking rules effective January 2025, development of a new Driver Services Platform expected within 12 months, and expansion of the 'Ready to Pass?' campaign with specific pass-rate and appointment-waste targets by June 2026.
Key findings
- DVSA recruited 225 driving examiners since July 2024, with 116 now conducting tests and 63 still in training; a further 217 in the pipeline with March 2025 recruitment campaign planned.
- Updated terms and conditions for business test bookings introduced 6 January 2025 prevent instructors booking tests on behalf of learners they are not teaching and stop placeholder bookings; violations trigger warnings, temporary suspension, or permanent account closure.
- Driver Services Platform project at full business case approval stage; private beta for car practical tests expected within 12 months, with full transformation of all services envisaged over four to five years.
- DVSA will pursue secondary legislative proposals to increase waiting times for test rebooking by candidates with serious faults, abuse allegations, or failures to attend.
- 'Ready to Pass?' campaign targets: increase first-attempt preparedness to 83% by June 2026 (from 78.6% in 2024) and reduce wasted appointment rate to 3% (from 3.9%); DVSA will use AI-generated content and hyper-personalisation to reach learner drivers.
- DVSA disputes recent pass-rate variance reporting as based on partial data; notes pass rates require minimum 100 tests over six months to be statistically significant, and analysis considers full annual context rather than three-month snapshots.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Lilian Greenwood MP, Ruth Cadbury MP, Emma Ward, Loveday Ryder, Pauline Reeves, DVSA, Department for Transport, HM Treasury
Notable line
“Any changes to the test booking system are to ensure DVSA provides a fair and accessible service to customers, ensuring that exploitation of learner drivers from unscrupulous businesses is stamped out.”
Key Quotes
“DVSA reported in December 2024 that it would recruit 450 examiners. That ambition was originally set out in July”
“The challenge around pay is common across the Civil Service. Whilst DVSA is competitive within the 'grade' against other departments, the struggle is in competing with similar roles in the private sector where the take-home pay can be significantly greater.”
“Any changes to the test booking system are to ensure DVSA provides a fair and accessible service to customers, ensuring that exploitation of learner drivers from unscrupulous businesses is stamped out.”
“… agency does not accept this is as wide as has recently been reported, based on data that only portrayed a partial picture.”
“For any pass rate to be statistically significant, the DE would need to have completed a minimum of 100 tests over a six-month period at the individual test centre.”
“I share the Committee's concern about these issues and have already asked DVSA for regular updates on progress with its seven-point plan.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗