Listening, learning, changing: my first update to driving instructors

This is my first direct message to you since becoming DVSA Chief Executive and I wanted to take this opportunity to focus on a few issues I know matter greatly to many of you as driving instructors. 

This blog post is also a longer read than what we’d normally publish, but please, stick with it, because I think it has some really important information for you. 

Getting out and about and listening 

Since I started at DVSA, I've spoken directly with driving instructors, learner drivers, examiners and other DVSA colleagues about how life-changing the driving test is. I've also read through what you told us in last year's ADI survey, including the harder messages. 

Many of you told us that DVSA asks for feedback and then does not show what changes as a result. Many of you commented on DVSA's management and policy, saying we have not done enough to address the backlog. And fewer than 4 in 10 of you feel you get the chance to contribute your views before decisions are made that affect you. I take that seriously and I think it has, at times, been a fair criticism. I'll come back to what we're doing about it. 

What has struck me most in my visits is the professionalism and commitment shown by instructors across Great Britain. I've met instructors managing their own waiting lists, having the difficult conversation of telling a pupil they are not ready and seeing their professional advice undermined by others telling them to “give it a go”.  

I know this has not just been a professional frustration. It has hit your ability to plan, disrupted your diaries and added challenges to a job you find meaningful.  

Your survey responses were clear on this: pupils putting lessons on hold for months, the stop-start cycle of filling gaps with new pupils only for former pupils to return at short notice and the near-impossible task of managing demand you cannot control. I do not underestimate the impact that this has had on you.  

Long driving test waiting times are not simply an inconvenience for learners either. For some, they delay the next step in their education or career. They can affect: 

• the learner in Middlesbrough hoping to begin an offshore wind apprenticeship on Teesside 

• the learner in Knowsley wanting to start a career in logistics at one of the businesses based on Knowsley Industrial Park 

• the learner in Mansfield hoping to begin an engineering apprenticeship with Toyota Manufacturing UK at Burnaston in Derbyshire 

• the learner in Merthyr Tydfil completing NHS nursing placements 

• the learner in Dundee travelling to Ninewells Hospital to qualify as an allied health professional 

Behind every driving test is someone trying to take the next step in their life and behind every instructor is a small business trying to plan around a system that has, for too long, made planning very hard. 

That is why reducing waiting times remains my top priority. 

I'm not going to pretend this can be fixed overnight. Waiting times remain too long in many parts of Great Britain. But DVSA is working hard to improve the situation as quickly as possible and I want to be open about the progress we're making, the challenges that remain and the changes we're introducing as a direct result of what we've heard from you. 

Focus on ADI qualification tests and standard 

I've also heard clearly from the industry and people who want to become an instructor, or are already registered, that the long waiting times for a part 2 or 3 test or a standards check are unacceptable. This is having a negative impact on the driver training industry, those working to join it and the trainers or organisations sponsoring them. 

While the focus of this blog post is around what we’re doing to tackle waiting times for learners, I want to reassure you that we are also looking at ways to improve our ADI services. Our Director of Enforcement, Marian Kitson, will provide an update soon on what we’re doing in this space. 

Progress is being made, but this is not fixed 

There are signs that the situation is beginning to improve and I want to show you the evidence rather than just assert it. 

On 30 March 2026, 182 driving test centres were showing 24 weeks' wait in the booking service. By 27 July 2026, that had reduced to 143. 

The measure we use for weeks until at least 10% of weekly appointments are available improved from 22.1 weeks at the end of March to 20.7 weeks at the end of July. However, the national median waiting time between booking and taking the test increased from 9.0 weeks to 11.1 weeks. This increase was expected as the unofficial ways of finding earlier tests were closed down.  

The percentage of appointments still available to book has increased from 7.7% to 11.8% over the same period. 

And the latest published data shows that in July 2026, DVSA completed 197,295 driving tests, the highest monthly total we have ever recorded. That was: 

• 26,452 more than July 2025 

• 35,628 more than July 2024 

• 53,539 more than July 2023 

These figures show movement in the right direction. But waiting times are still not good enough and I recognise that. Progress is not being felt evenly everywhere: some test centres and regions are seeing far less improvement than others. Many instructors and learners are still living with the impact of long waits every day and I will not pretend otherwise.

What's changed since March, and why 

Since March, we've introduced a range of changes designed to make the booking service fairer and easier to manage.  

We introduced these measures because too many learners were losing out to people misusing the booking service. Tests were being held, swapped, sold or resold in a way that made it harder for genuine learners to get an appointment. That was not fair to learners. It was not fair to you, supporting them. And it was not right for a public service to allow it to continue.  

Here is what we've done: 

• required learners to book their own driving test 

• limited how often appointments can be changed 

• limited how far appointments can be moved 

• introduced identity checks and consent requirements when tests are swapped 

• created a process to suspend online booking access where accounts are found to be misusing the service, alongside a review process for those decisions 

• introduced a way for people to report suspected test resellers and misuse 

• taken enforcement action against those found to be breaking the rules 

These changes are starting to contribute to the improvements in availability I've described, but they are not the only cause. They sit alongside a wider package of work on examiner recruitment and overtime.

It will be 3 months since we brought the changes in in September. Our lead for driving test waiting times Christian Oreschnick will write a blog post giving you a more detailed look at what the data is telling us and plans to move examiners into areas where waiting times are highest. 

I do need to be clear about one thing: these reforms are not going to be undone. They were introduced to increase fairness and stop exploitation and that principle stands.  

But introducing changes at pace means listening, learning and improving as we go. Some things have worked well. Some things need improving. We will not shy away from telling you that as the evidence comes in. 

Recruiting more examiners 

Alongside the booking reforms, we've continued to recruit driving examiners and make use of overtime to increase testing capacity. 

As of July 2026, we had 157 more full-time equivalent driving examiners in post than a year earlier, an increase of 10.9%. As a direct result, we have conducted over 120,000 more driving tests in the first 4 months of this financial year than over the same period last year. 

I know that many of you have told us, repeatedly, that recruiting and retaining examiners should be DVSA's central focus. 

I’m changing 3 things because of what you have told us 

One of the clearest messages I have heard from you is that DVSA asks for feedback but does not always show clearly what changes as a result. I recognise that this has happened. I want to change it, starting with these 3 things. 

1. Better guidance to help learners find a test 

Today we are publishing new guidance to help you and your pupils better understand how driving test availability actually works. We've heard from many people who believe all appointments are released at 6am on Monday mornings. This leads to large queues to get into the service.  

In reality, appointments become available at different times and for different reasons throughout the week. This guidance will not solve waiting times, but it should reduce confusion and help to get the Monday morning queue working more efficiently. 

2. A way for learners who need additional support to appoint someone to deal with DVSA on their behalf 

We've heard concerns from the industry about learners who need additional support and may struggle to manage a booking themselves.  

We plan to work with The Association of Disability Driving Instructors, NASP, charities and learners who need additional support to build and test a new way for eligible learners to formally appoint someone to speak to DVSA on their behalf regarding their driving test booking.  

We’ll update you further on the details on this work in future.   

3. Letting you see Ready to Pass? emails sent to your pupils 

Another thing many of you have told us is that it can be difficult to reinforce messages when you cannot see exactly what DVSA is sending to your pupils. 

As driving instructors, you are the professionals who work with learners week in, week out. You understand their strengths, weaknesses and readiness better than anyone else. So it's important that you can see the information and advice we are providing alongside your lessons. 

That's why today we've published copies of every Ready to Pass? campaign email in the driving instructor toolkit. These are refreshed versions and we will start to send them from 1 September 2026. You can now see what learners receive, when they receive it and how the messages align with different stages of the learning journey. 

You will see that the emails consistently encourage learners to trust their instructor's judgement, develop all of the skills needed for safe driving and think carefully about whether they are genuinely ready before taking a test. They reinforce the message that passing the test is not the goal in itself; becoming a safe driver for life is. 

Unfortunately, we cannot copy instructors into emails when they are sent, as they contain personal data. 

However, where we can be more transparent, we should be. Publishing these emails means you can see exactly how we're supporting the conversations you're already having with your pupils, and how we're encouraging learners to value your professional expertise. 

This builds on the wider changes we've recently made to the Ready to Pass? campaign, including the focus on the 27 driving skills and helping learners think about readiness in terms of safe, independent driving rather than simply passing a test. 

Being more transparent

I believe we should be open about our performance, whether the news is good or bad. That's why we've started publishing more detailed information about driving test waiting times and availability, including data at individual test centre level.  

You can see where progress is being made, where challenges remain and whether the actions we're taking are leading to results. 

Greater transparency means greater accountability, and that is good for DVSA, instructors and learners alike. 

What happens next 

We will continue to recruit and train more driving examiners, make use of overtime, publish more detailed performance data, prevent misuse of the booking service and improve the service where evidence shows changes are needed. 

Thank you for the important role you play in helping people become safe and competent drivers and for your patience while we work to make this system work better for you.