The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) supervises the delivery of light vehicle MOTs in Great Britain through its approved MOT garages. However, as these are private garages, DVSA does not collate overall data on the volume and cost of missed MOT appointments.

The national average waiting time in Great Britain (GB) for a car practical driving test in November 2025 was 22 weeks.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is upholding road safety standards while it works hard to reduce car practical driving test waiting times across GB. The agency is intensifying its efforts to reduce waiting times and improve access to driving tests that will break down barriers to opportunity as part of the government’s Plan for Change.

On the 12 November, the Secretary of State for Transport, updated the Transport Select Committee on the government’s ongoing response to high driving test waiting times in GB. Further information on the measures announced can be found on GOV.uk.

DVSA supervises the delivery of light vehicle MOTs in GB through its approved MOT garages. However, as these are private garages, DVSA does not collate overall average waiting time data for MOTs.

We are committed to expanding access to weight management services through digital innovation and personalised pathways that support people in a way that best meets their needs.

The NHS Digital Weight Management Programme is the only nationally commissioned weight management service delivered entirely through digital means. As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, there is a clear commitment to expand access to this programme, including doubling referral volumes. The service went live in 2021, and active planning is now underway to deliver this expansion, which is expected to begin in 2026/27.

For pharmacological treatments such as tirzepatide, otherwise know as Mounjaro, for the management of obesity, NHS England is working with the Office for Life Sciences and other partners to develop digitally enabled care pathways supported by behavioural interventions and which place patient safety and clinical oversight at their core. This is part of the newly launched £85 million health innovation programme, in collaboration with Eli Lilly, to test novel delivery models for weight management. These include digital platforms, pharmacy-led services, and community-based access routes. The programme is designed to improve accessibility and reduce pressure on specialist services, whilst ensuring care is safe and aligned with national clinical standards.

These innovative pathways are being designed to bring together remote prescribing, personalised behavioural support, and ongoing clinical supervision, allowing patients to access high-quality care in a way that is convenient and tailored to their individual needs.

Driver licensing is devolved in Northern Ireland. In Great Britain, drivers are required by law to notify the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) if they develop a medical condition that may affect safe driving or if they are no longer able to meet the required eyesight standards for driving. When the DVLA is notified, an investigation will be carried out and the driver may be required to undertake a formal assessment of vision, which must be carried out by a professional optometrist on specialised equipment. The DVLA may also act on information received from third parties. These types of notifications are most commonly received from the police, healthcare professionals, family, friends or neighbours.

If the police suspect that the driver of a vehicle does not meet the required standards of vision, then they can conduct a roadside vision test which requires the licence holder to be able to read a number plate from 20 metres in good daylight. If the police notify the DVLA that a driver has failed the test the licence will be revoked. If the driver does pass the eyesight test, the police can still notify the DVLA if they suspect that the driver has a medical condition or poor eyesight. The DVLA will then investigate to ensure the driver can meet the required standards.

The Government supports the NHS’s advice that adults should have their eyes tested every two years. This recommendation is included in many of the DVLA’s application forms and information leaflets about driving. Optometrists and ophthalmologists also play an important part by advising their patients of the implications of their vision on driving and the effect of their eye condition or any treatment that they are receiving. The General Medical Council and General Optical Council guidance confirms that it is appropriate for practitioners to notify the DVLA directly about a patient that is medically unfit to drive where the patient cannot or will notify themselves.

Genomic testing in the National Health Service in England is provided through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service and delivered by a national genomic testing network of seven NHS Genomic Laboratory Hubs (GLHs). The NHS GLHs deliver testing as directed by the National Genomic Test Directory, which includes tests for over 200 cancer clinical indications, and which sets out the eligibility criteria for patients to access testing.

In the 2019 NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England set the commitment to offer whole genome sequencing as part of routine care, including for children with cancer and for adults suffering from specific cancers. The latest data, from April 2024 to December 2024, showed cancer genomic testing activity of 129,610, which was half of all types of genomic testing in the same period.

To support more extensive cancer genomic testing, NHS England is working to ensure collaboration between pathology and genomics networks to address issues, including capacity, networking, and optimisation of cancer tissue pathways.

NHS England has specified turnaround times for genomic tests, with times varying based on the type of test and referral, ranging from a few days for urgent tests, a few weeks for single gene tests, to several months for complex tests. Genomic testing is delivered by a network of seven NHS Genomic Laboratory Hubs (GLHs). Each GLH publishes their own turnaround time activity for genomics testing.

The National Optimal Lung Cancer Pathway sets out the target to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard of a maximum 28 days from referral to the communication of a cancer diagnosis, or to rule out cancer. The Department is supporting NHS England to meet this target by investing in increasing diagnostic capacity, with the capacity prioritised for cancer activity.

The UK is monitoring the continued testing of ballistic missiles by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), including the short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) launches on 14 January 2025 - all of which violate UN Security Council resolutions (UNSCR). The UK remains committed to calling out all violations of UNSCRs and will continue to work with partners to enforce existing UN approved sanctions on DPRK.

Defra publishes official national statistics on tuberculosis in cattle (i.e. bovine TB) in Great Britain on a quarterly basis. These include, among other headline statistics, the actual numbers (not estimates) of TB tests performed in cattle herds and on individual animals. The latest quarterly release of these national statistics was published on 8 March and contained data up to the end of 2022. This is publicly available at GOV.UK.

Specifically, the monthly and annual numbers of all types of cattle TB tests, broken down by country of GB and by bovine TB risk regions of England and Wales, are available here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1140731/GB_bTB_Statistics_by_Country_and_Area_08mar23.ods

For a county-by-county breakdown of the monthly and annual numbers of TB tests performed on cattle please go to:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/tuberculosis-tb-in-cattle-in-great-britain

The next quarterly set of the national bovine TB statistics for GB is scheduled to be released on 14 June.

Bovine TB statistics for Northern Ireland are compiled separately by the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs of Northern Ireland and can be downloaded from the following link:

https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/articles/tuberculosis-statistics-northern-ireland

I do indeed remember those glasses, which I believe were available in blue and pink at one point. As I said, all children have access to free NHS sight tests, and voucher schemes are in place for glasses as well. In addition, we have Glasses in Classes and the programme in SEND schools, which are being evaluated. It is vital that young people can see when they are trying to learn to read and take in all that knowledge.

The department commissioned an Independent Review of the system for testing construction products. The review looks to examine how to strengthen the current system for testing construction products to provide confidence that these materials are safe and perform as marketed. This is a complex area and good progress has been made. We expect to publish the review shortly, and will respond in due course.

The majority of detailed technical requirements for vehicle construction are regulated at an international level through the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The Department for Transport is an active member and vehicle manufacturers also participate.

The expert group with responsibility for crash safety has already agreed changes to the UNECE regulations on frontal impact protection to include the use of crash test dummies representative of a small female occupant. In due course, this should encourage the use of smart restraint systems capable of delivering more consistent injury outcomes, irrespective of gender. The same expert group continues to collate data to establish what more might be needed at a regulatory level.

The Department for Transport also remains a member of the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), which provides objective information to motorists on the crash safety of cars. The rating programme also includes crash tests using dummies representative of female occupants.

The Defra Disinfectant test scheme, operated by the Animal Health and Plant Agency, utilises fully validated and United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accredited tests. These tests operate at a temperature of four degrees centigrade. Whilst this is not the minimum temperature a disinfectant may need to operate at in the UK it is representative of typical UK conditions and significantly lower that the ten degrees centigrade required by European standard (EN) tests. Changing this temperature would have significant implications for the products already approved under this scheme.

The Defra Disinfectant test scheme, operated by the Animal Health and Plant Agency, utilises fully validated and United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accredited tests to determine the likely efficacy of disinfectants in controlling animal disease pathogens when used in the UK environment. Some comparative testing has been done to assess European standard (EN) tests for veterinary disinfectant efficacy but EN tests currently do not use the target organism or temperatures representative of the UK environment. The work we have conducted to date has shown that the standard EN tests are easier to pass compared to the equivalent Defra disinfectant test. We continue to monitor standards used elsewhere in the world and remain confident the Defra scheme offers the UK government strong assurance that the products passing the test will be effective in the UK environment.

The Defra Disinfectant test scheme, operated by the Animal Health and Plant Agency, provides assurance that disinfectants can be effective in controlling animal disease pathogens when used in the UK environment. The test is designed to operate at four degrees centigrade which is representative of typical UK conditions. Defra has no plans to introduce tests at higher temperatures.

There are no age restrictions for National Health Service tests to detect and diagnose heart murmurs.

Departmental officials regularly meet with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) officials to discuss issues such as capacity for the development of guidance across all its guidance programmes, including as part of the annual business planning process. NICE does not operate a fixed capacity for the development of highly specialised technologies guidance and any topic that meets the topic selection criteria will be prioritised for guidance development.

The numbers provided in the table below relate to the number of drug tests administered each calendar year.

*These figures are for the Naval Service which consists of the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines.

Although the selection of personnel for compulsory drug tests is primarily random, a small percentage of personnel are repeatedly selected for testing. Consequently, the number of personnel tested each year does not directly correlate to the number of drug tests completed.

Some forms of DNA testing for cancer are available on the National Health Service. For example, the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes raise the risk of cancer if they become altered. Having a variant BRCA gene greatly increases a woman's chance of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines require that people with a 10% or higher risk of carrying BRCA genes are able to be counselled, supported and tested.

However, many other DNA tests for breast cancer are still in the research phase, and are therefore not routinely available.