Driving examiners can't solve test backlog by working from offices, says transport minister
Transport Minister, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, has stated that forcing Government staff to return to their offices will not reduce driving test waiting times. This comes after Conservative peer Lord Hannan of Kingsclere accused the Government of a "state failure" since Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns began in 2020.
Earlier, Conservative peer Lord Young of Cookham had expressed concern about "middlemen hoovering up slots on the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) website and then charging learner drivers a premium to access them". He questioned the minister: "Why doesn’t the Government just get on with this and ban this racket?"
In response, Lord Hendy assured that the Government would implement changes at a pace "so that we don’t inadvertently make it more difficult for legitimate people looking for tests to book them".
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He informed peers that "tougher terms and conditions" for test bookings were introduced on January 6, and the Government is recruiting an additional 450 driving examiners to reduce waiting times from nearly 21 weeks to seven by the end of December this year. This is in addition to the existing 1,456 full-time equivalent posts, and the first batch of new recruits is "about to start doing driving tests".
Former transport secretary Lord Grayling asked: "Why is it that any driving test can be booked anywhere except the official DVSA website and why can he not just sort that?"
Lord Hendy responded from the despatch box: "The same reason as you didn’t."
He explained that "a quarter of total test bookings had been swapped from one licence to another", adding "driving instructors can apply for a test for one pupil and then transfer it to another if the second pupil is making faster progress than the first ... and that’s how it should be."
He went on to say, "The number of people going through these agencies is clearly more than zero, and since it is, we should do something about it.
“But we have to do that in a way which doesn’t prevent driving instructors from running decent businesses and also allows people to change their bookings when they need to.”
Lord Hannan told the Lords: “Secondary markets almost always develop as a consequence of state failure and this is no exception.
“We all know people, I have two children who have been affected by this, and the state failure began, the explosion in these websites began with lockdown.
“Isn’t the ultimate answer to get these and indeed other Government employees to come back to the office?”
To laughter, Lord Hendy said: “The one thing that driving examiners can’t do is work in an office.
“And I think that must be self-evident and the real answer to this whole issue is to reduce the amount of time it takes from an application for a test to the test to occur.”