Driving test backlog 'cannot get much worse'

LEARNER drivers are being forced to wait more than five months to book a slot at four out of five test centres, new figures show.

- NEIL LANCEFIELD

Some 258 locations in Britain had the maximum possible waiting time of 24 weeks for a test as of May 5, which is 81% of all sites.

That is up from 161 at the start of the year.

AA Driving School, which obtained the figures from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), warned the situation “cannot get much worse”.

The average waiting time across all test centres has reached 22 weeks, up from 14 weeks in February 2024.

The DVSA attributes the backlog to an increase in demand and some people booking their test much earlier than before.

Officials hope an increase in the number of tests being conducted will bring waiting times down.

The number of future bookings in the DVSA’s system was 122,000 higher in June compared with the same month last year.