Heidi Alexander said the uk driving test backlog will not reach the seven-week target until autumn next year. The Transport Secretary told a Committee of MPs on Wednesday that learners are still facing an average booking wait of nearly 22 weeks, far above the goal set for the system. She said the gap remains despite a series of rule changes intended to stop slots being taken and resold.
Heidi Alexander and MP committee
Alexander told MPs that “demand is still very high,” that “there was still a lot of work to do,” and “I understood people's frustrations.” Those comments came after Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency figures showed the average waiting time to book a test last month was nearly 22 weeks, compared with about five weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The DVSA had initially aimed to bring the average wait down to seven weeks by the end of 2025. Alexander later moved that target to summer 2026 before saying even that timetable would not be met. For learners trying to book around work, lessons or travel, the practical effect is a queue that remains far longer than the official target.
Booking rules since last November
Alexander announced changes last November aimed at cutting long waits and preventing test slots from being booked up and resold at inflated prices. Since 12 May, only learners themselves have been able to book their test slot. A rule introduced at the end of March allows only two changes to a booked slot.
From 9 June, learners moving a test have been limited to the three test centres closest to where the test is booked. The government’s stated aim was to make it harder for bots and resellers to absorb appointments, after some learner drivers ended up buying slots from resellers charging many times the official cost of a driving test.
Resellers and learner drivers
A investigation in December found some learner drivers were being offered kickbacks of up to £250 a month to sell their login details to touts. That detail shows how the backlog reached beyond long waits alone and into a secondary market built around scarce appointments.
For learners, the immediate practical reading of Alexander’s update is straightforward: the seven-week target is now out of reach for more than a year, and the rules designed to protect slots have already tightened. The next pressure point is whether the booking changes and the limits on moving tests can bring the wait down faster than the current figures suggest.
