Hundreds of driving examiners will be recruited to cut “sky-high” wait times for tests, the government has announced.
Lilian Greenwood, minister for the future of roads, said “no one should have to wait six months when they’re ready to pass” their driving test and acknowledged there was a “huge” backlog.
The recruitment drive is part of a wider plan that the government says will reduce wait times to seven weeks by December 2025.
Driving instructors have branded the current system a “nightmare” and expressed doubts that the proposed changes will make any material difference.
Figures released by the Department for Transport (DfT) earlier this year indicated that the number of driving tests taken reached a record level in the 12 months to the end of March, at 1.9 million.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has now set out a plan to tackle long waits, with learners having to pay more for tests that are booked out by third parties trying to make a profit.
Among the measures announced is the recruitment and training of 450 driving examiners across Great Britain.
The DVSA will increase the period for changing or cancelling a test without losing money from three working days to 10 working days beforehand in a bid to discourage late cancellations.
There will also be a consultation over proposals to increase the amount of time for booking new tests for learners who fail after making serious or dangerous mistakes. Learner drivers currently have to wait 10 working days before being able to book another test.
Current rules around tests being booked up to 24 weeks in advance will also be looked at to see if learners could sign up further ahead.
Ms Greenwood said passing a driving test was “a life changing opportunity for millions” but “sky-high waiting times for tests in recent years have denied that opportunity to too many people”.
“No one should have to wait six months when they’re ready to pass, travel to the other side of the country to take a driving test or be ripped off by unscrupulous websites just because they can’t afford to wait,” she said.
“The scale of the backlog we have inherited is huge, but today’s measures are a crucial step to tackle the long driving test wait times, protect learner drivers from being exploited, and support more people to hit the road.”
Diana Mulrain has been teaching learner drivers in Hendon in north-west London for more than 40 years, and is part of a WhatsApp group of local instructors who swap tests between themselves for their students.
She described the current system as “an absolute nightmare” and said students were incentivised to take the test even if they were not ready to avoid waiting months to try again.
Mrs Mulrain said the DVSA had failed to adequately address the issue of test slots being booked out by brokers.
She said adding more driving examiners only increases the number of tests that can be snapped up by third parties, and she cannot see how those businesses were being prevented from operating.
“What they should do is to stop all bookings other than (for) the pupil. One credit card, one licence, one test. End of,” she said.
Helen Ansell has worked as an instructor in Cornwall for four years and said she was “not very hopeful” the proposals would change anything.
She suggested students should have a training log to ensure learner drivers were not taking up test slots when they were not ready.
“Once they’ve done a certain numbers of hours with an instructor, say 20 hours, that’s when they can book a test,” she said.
The BBC has contacted the DfT for comment on the driving instructors’ concerns.
Additional reporting by Anna Lamche