Huge boost for learner drivers as 10,000 test slots set to drop under huge rule changes – everything you need to know
LEARNER drivers will get 10,000 more test slots a month under an urgent Government push to cut crippling delays.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander today admitted the backlog will not be cleared until summer 2026 – missing the original target by up to eight months.
She said the current average 20-week wait is “totally unacceptable” and warned the Government “can’t deliver on its Plan for Change” if learners remain stuck in limbo.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has now been ordered to ramp up efforts, including bringing back overtime pay, doubling the number of examiner trainers, and calling in qualified staff from behind desks to the front line.
A formal crackdown on bots hoarding and reselling test slots will also launch next month, as part of a wider consultation on booking system reform.
This is expected to free up at least 10,000 extra each month.
The DVSA’s original goal was to bring waits down to seven weeks by the end of 2025 – but Ms Alexander said it won’t be hit until next summer.
Questioned by the Commons’ Transport Select Committee when average waiting times will be reduced to seven weeks, Ms Alexander said: “We think that this package of measures I’m announcing today could result in us meeting that target again in the summer of next year.”
Demand for tests has rocketed since the pandemic, with record-high bookings of 583,000 logged at the end of March.
The number of test centres facing 24-week maximum waits has nearly doubled in a year – from 94 to 183.
In a separate statement released by the Department for Transport, she said: “We inherited an enormous backlog of learners ready to ditch their L plates but being forced to endure record waiting time for their tests.
“We simply cannot deliver on our Plan for Change if thousands remain held back, with their aspirations on pause.”
Pauline Reeves, director of driver services at the DVSA, said: “Since December 2024, we’ve made significant progress on implementing our plan to reduce waiting times.
“But we know that many learner drivers are not seeing the immediate effects of the measures.
“The further action which the Secretary of State has announced today will help us to accelerate those measures, including expanding training capacity for newly recruited driving examiners so more of them can start carrying out driving tests sooner.”
Steve Gooding, director of motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, said: “The current system is failing learner drivers even before they sit their tests, and today’s news shows there won’t be a quick fix to the frustratingly long waiting times.
“For now, the best way candidates can help themselves is to be as prepared as possible for test day when it does eventually arrive so they have the greatest chance of passing.
“At the moment less than 50 per cent of tests taken are passed.”