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Driving Tests: North East

Answer

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) publishes data on GOV.UK, in report DRT122A, for the number of practical driving tests conducted at all driving test centres, including at Darlington, Middlesbrough, Northallerton, Hartlepool. The data in report DRT122A is updated annually and currently shows data to March 2025. The table below shows the number of practical driving tests conducted in England for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years by quarter.

Financial Year	Quarter	England
2023-24	Q1	378,463
2023-24	Q2	376,062
2023-24	Q3	455,193
2023-24	Q4	494,651
2024-25	Q1	410,819
2024-25	Q2	392,465
2024-25	Q3	398,047
2024-25	Q4	407,945

The tables below show the number of additional driving examiners recruited for Darlington, Middlesbrough, Northallerton, Hartlepool and England for 2024 -2025 and 2025-2026 quarterly.

This data includes those who are in training to be a driving examiner. A driving examiner is a paid DVSA employee from the point at which they start their training. The data below shows those who are qualified and who are working at DTCs doing tests.

Test Centre	2024-2025
	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
Darlington	0	0	0	2	2
Middlesbrough	0	1	0	2	3
Northallerton	0	2	0	0	2
Hartlepool	0	0	0	0	0
England	44	45	60.76	89.38	239.14

Test Centre	2025-2026
	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
Darlington	3	1	0	0	4
Middlesbrough	0	1	1	0	2
Northallerton	1	1	0	0	2
Hartlepool	0	2	0	0	2
England	81	115.57	110.38	108.73	415.68

The table below shows the number of full-time equivalent driving examiners employed at the below test centres as of 1 April 2026.

Driving test centre	Full time equivalent driving examiners
Darlington	8.57
Middlesbrough	5.95
Northallerton	3
Hartlepool	5.62

The table below shows the average waiting time for a car practical driving test in May 2026.

Driving test centre	Average waiting time in May 2026 (weeks) based on the national average waiting time metric of when a minimum of 10% of test slots are available
Darlington	13
Hartlepool	16.75
Middlesbrough	22.75
Northallerton	15.5
England	22.3
National (GB)	21.8

The DVSA also records national median waiting time data (the time between the first test booking and test taken) for car practical driving tests. The national median waiting time for a car practical driving test in May 2026 was 9.7 weeks. The median waiting time data is currently not available broken down by driving test centre.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

5458

Session

2026-27

Grouped for answer

Yes

Subjects

Staff Driving tests North East

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk