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Written question asked by Alan Gemmell (Labour) on Friday, 28 August 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 2 September 2026. It was answered by Justin Madders (Labour) on Thursday, 3 September 2026 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Driving Tests: Ayrshire

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans she has to increase testing capacity in Ayrshire.

Answer

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) publishes data on car practical test cancellation reasons by month and driving test centre (DTC) on GOV.UK. This data, in report DRT122B, is updated annually and currently shows data to March 2026. The next update is due to be published in June 2027.

The Government set out a comprehensive package of measures in April 2025 to tackle long waiting times across the whole of Great Britain, aiming to deliver around 10,000 additional tests per month. A key step was reintroducing overtime incentives. DVSA conducted 1.99 million tests between April 2025 and March 2026, a record and 8.6% (159,000) higher than the previous year.

DVSA has also made changes to make the booking system fairer, as well as continuing to run national recruitment campaigns for driving examiners (DE) across the country.

DVSA has two permanent test centres in Ayrshire, which are Ayr and Irvine DTCs. Both DTCs also serve a number of outstations across Ayrshire.

A new entrant DE passed their training course last week and will start testing from Ayr this week. DVSA also has a new entrant currently in training for Irvine who, if successful, will join the test centre in October.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
24212
Session
2026-27
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Driving tests Ayrshire
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk