Correspondence

DVSA Chief Executive letter to driving instructors about the recovery of driving test services

Published 12 November 2021

This correspondence was withdrawn on 22 February 2022

This correspondence has been withdrawn because the guidance it contains is no longer current.

Check the latest:

• coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance and information
• blog posts for driver and rider trainers from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Dear colleague,

Following my recent letter I sent to you on 15 October, I would like to update you on new developments on driver testing.

Further progress has been made with the industrial action talks with the Public and Commercial Service (PCS), which I’ll be going into more detail in this letter.

We’re also launching our next phase of the driving examiner recruitment campaign and developing our plans for our ‘Be Prepared’ campaign aimed at learner drivers.

We’ll also working on developing a range of other regulatory measures aimed at making every test count. These will encourage learners to be fully prepared and modernise further elements of the driving test. We are aiming to launch the consultation this autumn.

Industrial action

We have been in talks with PCS. We have agreed to spend the next 12 months working with local driving test managers and examiners to develop a plan to rebuild trust between our colleagues and DVSA.

PCS balloted their members and more than 90% voted to accept the agreement they reached with us. PCS sent us a message on 9 November confirming that they are no longer in dispute with us.

This means for the next 12 months we are taking any move to an 8 test day out of our planning and no tests will be impacted by industrial action or action short of strike.

This is great news for all of us, especially your pupils with tests booked in the coming weeks and months.

Driving examiner recruitment

We have increased car test throughput by 25% since May, but the high demand for tests continues.

We’ve reached our next phase to recruit more driving examiners across England, Scotland and Wales to meet our overall aim of recruiting more than 300 additional examiners. This will allow us to increase testing further to help reduce the backlog.

We often hear that some instructors are put off from applying for these roles as they believe part-time or flexible hours aren’t on offer. This is not the case and new entrants are coming in on flexible working patterns where they will work 5 in 7 days.

Our campaign hopes to reach out to these people to encourage them to take the plunge and apply for these rewarding roles. We’ll be providing more updates on this campaign later this month.

‘Be Prepared’ campaign

We’re now ready to begin further research work to help us to design some new campaign messages, aimed at learner drivers.

We will use messages to help learner drivers to understand how long it might take to learn to drive. We’ll encourage them to book and take a driving test only once they’re ready to help reduce driving test waiting times.

Prior to the pandemic we carried out research with you, your pupils and our examiners which has been extremely valuable. I’m grateful to you for taking the time to give us your feedback.

To supplement this, we are carrying out two new research projects. The first is exploring the influence that families and friends have on learners. The second is looking in depth at the learning to drive process from a learner’s perspective, and where we can provide more timely support and information. We consulted NASP on these projects and took into account their comments with our approach.

My colleague, Mark Magee, Head of Driver Policy, has published a blog which goes into more detail about these two pieces of research.

In the meantime, some of your pupils, ex-pupils or their family and relatives may be contacted by the research companies to ask them to take part. I’d be extremely grateful if you would encourage them to take part, as their feedback will be vital to help shape our campaign and improve our future driving testing service.

Driving test change consultation

We will be launching a government consultation on a range of proposed driving test changes, which we are planning to publish this autumn.

These measures will help make sure learners are properly prepared before taking their driving test and give us greater flexibility on when we can offer tests.

We’ll be providing more detail on the proposed changes and how you can get involved in the consultation shortly.

Keeping in contact

We understand the last 18 months have been challenging for you, your families and your business and even now, we are still working towards a new ‘normal’.

Rest assured, we’re continuing to work on further plans to try to reduce driving test waiting times as quickly as possible.

We also need to continue to support the government’s aim to get more HGV drivers on the roads. This will help make sure we all have access to groceries, medication, and other essentials we rely on for our everyday lives.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on our latest plans and new developments which relate to your work as they emerge.

Yours faithfully,

Loveday Ryder
Chief Executive
Driver and Vehicles Standards Agency