Car driving tests cancelled because of bad weather December to March 2013
Published 19 May 2014
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/car-driving-tests-cancelled-because-of-bad-weather-december-to-march-2013/car-driving-tests-cancelled-because-of-bad-weather-december-to-march-2013
This is Freedom of Information request ia0018813.
1. Request
How many car driving tests had to be cancelled between December and March 2013 due to the bad weather?
2. Response
We publish statistics for the number of car tests that have been cancelled by reason and broken down by month on our website. You can find this information up until December 2012 at: Car driving test data by test centre.
This information is exempt under section 21 (information accessible by other means) of the FoIA and a copy of this exemption is attached at Annex A.
You have also requested this information for January, February and March 2013. This information is due to be published on 11 July and will be available on our website at the link above. This information is exempt from release under section 44 (1)(a) (prohibitions on disclosure) by virtue of the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008 which limits access to official statistics until their date of publication. As this exemption is an absolute exemption we are not required to conduct a public interest test. A copy of this exemption in full can be found at Annex B.
3. Request
The knock on effect this had on people trying to book for new tests. Was the waiting list for car driving tests then increased due to this?
4. Response
The table below shows the average waiting time (in weeks) for practical car tests for the financial year 2012/13 broken down by month.
Please note that waiting times can be affected by a number of factors which includes but is not limited to bad weather. The knock-on effect due to bad weather is minimised because we manage the availability of appointments to accommodate changes in demand. Where it is necessary to cancel a candidate’s test they will be moved to the next available vacant test slot.
| Month | Average waiting time |
|---|---|
| April 2012 | 6.2 |
| May 2012 | 5.7 |
| June 2012 | 6.5 |
| July 2012 | 6.3 |
| August 2012 | 7.1 |
| September 2012 | 6.6 |
| October 2012 | 5.9 |
| November 2012 | 5.4 |
| December 2012 | 5.8 |
| January 2013 | 6.7 |
| February 2013 | 5.4 |
| March 2013 | 6.5 |
| 2012/13 | Total 6.2 |