A government initiative to hire more driving test examiners and shorten waiting times faces severe setbacks, with only 3 percent of applicants receiving job offers.
Low Success Rate in Applications
Recent figures reveal that out of 11,132 applicants last year, just 327 secured positions as practical driving test examiners—one in every 34 candidates. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has launched 19 recruitment campaigns since 2021 to tackle average wait times of 22 weeks for practical tests.
Challenges in Meeting Targets
The National Audit Office indicates a need for 400 additional examiners to bolster the current workforce of 1,556, aiming to reduce waits to seven weeks by the end of 2027. However, approximately 12 percent of examiners—around 186—resign annually, often due to a typical salary of £28,000 and high stress levels. As a result, only about 140 net new examiners have joined, falling short of the 400 target by two-thirds.
Political and Industry Reactions
Shadow Transport Minister Richard Holden stated: “Labour’s handling of driving tests is a failure so spectacular it takes genuine effort to achieve. People desperate to drive are stuck paying for lessons they don’t need, watching their insurance bills climb, waiting months for a test slot that never materialises with waiting times having increased by a month since the General Election. Nothing could be more symptomatic of Labour’s contempt for young people and a practical example of their war on drivers that they’re so abjectly failing to allow people to take a test to get people behind the wheel.”
Wait times last year reached 22 weeks, up from five weeks in February 2020, per National Audit Office data.
Calls for Improvement
The AA highlights the high applicant drop-out rate and urges the DVSA to accelerate the process. AA driving school managing director Emma Bush noted: “While not everyone who applies for the role will be suitable and some level of drop-out rate is to be expected, this does seem high. This issue must remain under scrutiny as learners still face lengthy waits to get a test—impacting their ability to access work, education and facilitate their social lives and caring responsibilities.”
