Birmingham 'among hardest places to book a driving test' as full UK crisis revealed

Birmingham has been named as one of the hardest places in the UK to book a driving test, new data shows. The city was revealed as the fifth most difficult area outside of London for learner drivers to get booked in for their practical tests.

Only Liverpool, Warrington, Manchester and Hemel Hempstead were named as harder places to get a date at a test centre. It comes after we revealed around 423,622 learners in the West Midlands were vying for just 231,050 driving test slots.

A backlog of tests built up from the pandemic has been blamed for long waiting times for learners nationwide. The average wait in the country was around 15 weeks at the end of January.

Read more: Battle for driving test slots as two learners fight for every appointment

Motor trade insurance experts One Sure Insurance recently analysed government data to find out where waiting times remain highest. The firm created an index based on the following factors:

• The number of provisional licence holders in the area for every 1,000 full licence holders

• The number of test centres per 10,000 provisional licence holders in the area

• The proportion of tests carried out per 1,000 provisional licence holders

• The proportion of tests cancelled per 1,000 provisional licence holders.

These factors were then weighted accordingly to determine which areas provided the worst chances of securing a date for a driving test. Birmingham was named the fifth most difficult area to book a driving test in the UK with an index score of 28.51 out of 100.

The firm said the city faces particular challenges in the number of provisional licence holders for every 1,000 full licence holders. According to the findings, Birmingham scored only 1.72 out of 10 for this factor in the index.

This equates to 327.17 for every 1,000 fully licenced drivers – 52 per cent more than the UK average of 215.86. Similarly, the rate of test cancellations in Birmingham was 52 per cent less than the national average – meaning last-minute test availability was among the least in the country.

Chris Lear, MD at One Sure Insurance, said: "For learner drivers, their driving test can be one of the most anticipated days of their lives and something they have worked very hard to prepare for. However, the duration that learners may wait when looking to book their driving test can be lengthy.

"It means learners may end up paying for more lessons than necessary ahead of their test date, or losing motivation for their test, which may be months away from the date of booking. Whilst wait times have come down across the country since the backlogs largely attributed to the Covid lockdowns, wait times remain high.

"Therefore, the results of the study provide useful insights to learner drivers who are hoping to sit their driving test in the near future. The study reveals which areas nearby may have the best chances of securing a test date sooner than others."