The latest driving test row is no longer just about waiting lists. It is also about whether the system can actually hire the people needed to shrink them. New figures show that just 327 out of 11, 132 applicants were offered jobs as practical test examiners last year, while the average wait for a test stood at 22 weeks. That gap between policy promise and operational reality now sits at the heart of a political and administrative dispute.
Why the backlog matters now
The concern is not limited to inconvenience. The Transport Committee chair, Ruth Cadbury, warned in a letter to Roads Minister Simon Lightwood that progress on the backlog has been only “slow and limited. ” Her warning lands at a time when learners are still facing waits measured in months, not weeks, even after repeated recruitment drives.
The data show that the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has held 19 separate recruitment campaigns since 2021 to reduce delays for the practical driving test. Yet the outcome last year was stark: only around 3 per cent of applicants were successful. That scale of rejection suggests the bottleneck is not simply a shortage of applicants, but a harder problem of converting interest into usable workforce growth.
What lies beneath the hiring problem
The numbers in the record point to a system under strain on both sides. The National Audit Office said four months ago that 400 new examiners were needed, on top of the current 1, 556, to bring waiting times down to a seven-week target by the end of 2027. But the same figures show that each year about 12 per cent of examiners, or roughly 186 people, resign. Low pay and stress were cited as common reasons, with a typical salary of £28, 000 mentioned in the record.
That helps explain why the overall picture has barely improved. The agency has added only about 140 extra examiners, leaving it roughly a third of the way toward the target identified by the National Audit Office. In that context, the driving test delay is not just a scheduling issue; it is a workforce retention issue that continues to feed on itself. If examiners leave as quickly as they are recruited, the system struggles to recover capacity.
Driving test and the pressure on learners
For learners, the practical effects are immediate. Last year’s average wait of 22 weeks compares with five weeks in February 2020, showing how sharply the system has deteriorated over time. January’s average fell only slightly to 21. 2 weeks, which Ruth Cadbury described as a modest improvement after long stretches in 2025 when waits stayed between 20. 8 and 22. 5 weeks, and often between 22. 3 and 22. 5 weeks from April to December.
Richard Holden, the shadow transport minister, said Labour’s handling of driving tests was a failure “so spectacular it takes genuine effort to achieve. ” He argued that people are paying for lessons they do not need, watching insurance bills rise, and waiting months for slots that never materialise. Emma Bush, managing director of AA Driving School, said the dropout rate among applicants appeared high and that the issue must remain under scrutiny because long waits affect work, education, social lives and caring responsibilities.
Regional and wider implications
The impact reaches beyond individual learners. The National Audit Office found that in September 2025, seven out of 10 permanent test centres were operating at the maximum 24-week booking limit, leaving little room for local flexibility even when demand shifted. That means the problem is not confined to one area; it is built into the national booking structure.
Cadbury also pressed for clarity on whether the DVSA is still on track for the revised November 2027 target, and on how the Department for Transport and DVSA are responding to recommendations on recruitment and retention. With only 83 full-time equivalent examiners added between February 2021 and September 2025, and attrition at 14 per cent, the broader lesson is difficult to ignore: unless workforce stability improves, the driving test system may keep generating delay faster than it can clear it. So the question now is whether the next round of reform can produce real capacity, or whether the backlog will keep outrunning every promise to fix it.
