New rules for driving tests have been set out by the DVSA under its plan to reduce waiting times and help drivers get on the road.
The agency says it will review and improve the rules for booking driving tests, aiming to make the system more efficient and easier to use.
The average waiting time in England currently stands at 21 weeks, or just under five months – but can often reach six months or more.
The change is just one part of a seven-step plan to bring improvements to the current system. The DVSA has also announced that it will be recruiting 450 driving examiners across the country to improve the availability of tests.
Figures released by the Department for Transport (DfT) earlier this year indicated that the number of tests taken reached a record level in the 12 months to the end of March, at 1.9 million.
The measures will also see an increase to the period for changing or cancelling a test without losing money, in a bid to discourage late cancellations. This period will rise from three to 10 working days.
This will come alongside changes to the system used by driving instructors to book tests in an attempt to free up more slots, as well as a call for evidence to examine how to prevent candidates being ripped off by third parties buying up slots.
Lilian Greenwood, minister for the future of roads, said: “Passing your driving test is 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.
“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.”
In October a parliamentary debate heard that delays to driving tests had hit trainee paramedics and an aspiring police officer.
Labour’s Kevin McKenna told MPs that he met a constituent whose daughter was “desperate” to become a police officer.
The MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey in Kent said: “She can’t start a job because she needs to be able to drive for the job, she’ll be working in shifts, all she could find was a driving test months down the line in Birmingham, 150 miles away. She’s one of the luckier constituents in that she could actually find one.”
