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Written question asked by Joe Robertson (Conservative) on Tuesday, 2 June 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 8 June 2026 (named day). A holding answer was provided on Monday, 8 June 2026. A substantive answer was provided by Simon Lightwood (Labour) on Wednesday, 17 June 2026 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Driving Tests

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many additional practical car driving tests were delivered by DVSA in each month since March 2026 compared with the same months in the previous year; of those additional tests, how many were delivered by (i) examiners working overtime, (ii) warrant card holders temporarily deployed from other DVSA roles and (iii) newly recruited examiners; and during which months warrant card holders from non-examiner roles were deployed to conduct practical driving tests.

Answer

In April 2026 there were 1,618 full-time equivalent (FTE) driving examiners (DE) in post, and out of those, 1,604 were available to deliver practical car driving tests. In April 2026, 16 DEs started conducting tests. The data for May is still being finalised and will be available later in June.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/driving-test-and-theory-test-data-cars shows the number of car practical driving tests conducted up to April 2026.

The table below shows the number of overtime tests for the period April to May 2026.

Month

Number of overtime tests

April 2026

30,582

May 2026

31,867

The answer, 20 April 2026, to written question 127306, provided data for March 2026.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
6303
Session
2026-27
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Staff Driving tests Recruitment Overtime
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk