Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average wait is for a driving test appointment (a) in England and (b) at the Hull test centre.

Andrew Jones

The main cause of current waiting times across the country is a significant and sustained surge in demand for driving tests, the last time we saw demand at such high levels was in 2005/6.

The average waits for a driving test appointment in (a) England and (b) at Hull test centre are as follows:

England

Car – 12 weeks

Taxi – eight weeks

Module one motorcycle test – six weeks

Module two motorcycle test – six weeks

Hull driving test centre

Car – 15 weeks

Taxi – nine weeks

Module one motorcycle test – 11 weeks

Module two motorcycle test – one week

Our 2015/16 recruitment campaigns resulted in 193 new examiners starting work at test centres across Britain. A further 48 examiners have started testing since April 2016, and we have made employment offers to an additional 110 people, who are currently either attending the new entrant training course, or waiting to attend one.