The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) will hire an extra 450 driving test examiners across Britain as it bids to cut waiting times.
The move to add extra test capacity comes as the average waiting time for learner drivers hits four and a half months.
This is double the average from nine years ago and doesn’t account for regional disparities across the nation’s 380 test centres. In London, for example, the average wait time is now six months.
As well as boosting the number of tests it can carry out, the DVSA is taking measures to free up existing test slots.
Next month, it will introduce new terms and conditions for driving instructors to prevent them from booking tests for pupils they don’t teach and from booking tests that a learner has no intention to use.
It said that this is typically done to create a placeholder for swapping a test onto a different learner at a later time – alluding to the ongoing practice of bulk-booking slots and reselling them at a premium.
Former transport secretary Louise Haigh called the resale of slots “unacceptable” in August, when she said that addressing the driving test backlog was a “key priority” for the new Labour government.
The DVSA will increase the notice period for booking a test without losing the booking fee (£62-£75) from three working days to 10 from next spring.
It will also look into increasing the waiting period for learners after failing their test under specific circumstances: making multiple serious or dangerous errors, verbally or physically assaulting an examiner or failing to attend a test without telling the DVSA.
The current waiting time after failing a test is 10 working days.
The DVSA will consider charging a penalty for failing to attend.
Despite the plans to address the backlog, minister for the future of roads Lilian Greenwood said “there is no quick fix to the current situation”.
“It will take time for us to tackle the root causes of this issue, fix the broken system this government inherited and build a robust system for the future,” she added.