What DVSA’s 10.3 Week Test Wait Hides for 27.5% Waiting Over 21 Weeks

• The median wait for a car driving test in Great Britain fell to 10.3 weeks in October 2026 from 11.6 weeks in September, DVSA’s monthly figures show.
• Some 27.5% of October tests took place more than 21 weeks after booking, a share that climbs to 38.4% in London and drops to 10.4% in Wales.
• DVSA releases a fresh week of test appointments at 6am every Monday, 24 weeks ahead, and earlier slots surface only through cancellations, changes and extra examiner time.

More Than One Test in Four Came After a Wait of Over 21 Weeks

DVSA published its October 2026 driving test figures on 11 November, and the headline number improved. Half of all learners who took a car test in October waited 10.3 weeks or less between booking and sitting it, against 11.6 weeks in September and 11.6 weeks in October 2025. DVSA’s own appointments page states it this way: “Half of all learners who took a test in October 2026 waited no more than 10.3 weeks”.

The other half is where the trouble sits. DVSA completed 198,110 car tests with a pass or fail result in October, and 27.5% of them took place more than 21 weeks after the booking date. That is roughly 54,500 tests in a single month. A learner who books in London faces the sharpest version: the median wait there was 12.0 weeks, 38.4% of London tests (about 9,960 of 25,943) came after more than 21 weeks, and the pool of unbooked slots in the 24 week booking window was close to empty.

Wales sits at the other end of the table. Its median wait was 8.0 weeks and only 10.4% of tests followed a wait of more than 21 weeks. London’s share is about 3.7 times the Welsh one. Where a learner books decides which of those experiences arrives.

October also brought more activity through the system. The 198,110 completed tests are 15,678 more than the 182,432 of October 2025, and 100,583 candidates passed, a pass rate of 50.8% against 49.6% a year earlier and 51.8% in September. DVSA examiners supplied 33,091 test slots through overtime, up from 30,873 in September and 31,398 a year before.

The shape of the waits improved too. Some 43.4% of tests happened within 7 weeks of booking, up from 41.1% in September and 39.5% in October 2025. At the long end, the share beyond 21 weeks fell by 2.0 points on September (29.5%) and by 3.9 points on a year earlier (31.4%). Even so, 56.6% of October tests came more than 7 weeks after booking: 14.1% between 7 and 14 weeks, 15.0% between 14 and 21 weeks, and the 27.5% beyond.

Why the Median Leaves the Longest Waits Out

A median is the middle value. Line up every October test from shortest wait to longest, and the 10.3 weeks is the figure in the centre: half waited less, half waited more. It says nothing about how far the longer half stretches, and in October more than a quarter of all tests sat beyond 21 weeks.

DVSA builds the measure from the date a test was eventually taken, not the date it was first booked for. A learner who grabbed a cancellation and moved a test earlier is counted at the shorter wait, and one who moved it later is counted at the longer. Only tests that ended in a pass or fail enter the calculation, so a cancelled test, for example one abandoned over an unsuitable vehicle, is out. The wait also belongs to the month the test is sat. Someone who books a slot 24 weeks away today appears in the figures for April 2027.

DVSA publishes a second measure that answers a different question: the number of weeks until at least 10% of weekly appointments are still free to book. It stood at 19.2 weeks across Great Britain in October, against 19.7 in September and 21.7 a year earlier. DVSA calculates the regional and national numbers by averaging test centres, with each centre counting equally whatever its volume of tests, and some centres are left out of the official target measure reported to Parliament and in DVSA’s annual report and accounts. DVSA’s notes add that many learners book and take a test sooner than that, as cancellations and extra capacity open earlier slots, so the 19.2 weeks indicates availability across an area and does not describe any single booking.

A third number shows the pressure on capacity. On the last Monday of October, DVSA had 680,833 standard weekday test slots in its 24 week window and 592,010 were booked, leaving 88,823 free, or 13.0%. On the same Monday a year earlier only 13,800 of 621,628 slots, or 2.2%, were still open. DVSA warns that data from April 2025 onwards is provisional and is refreshed quarterly until the full-year 2025 to 2026 figures appear, so single months can shift slightly.

London and Scotland Trail While Wales and Yorkshire Lead

The regional rows of DVSA’s table show how uneven the system is. Scotland recorded the longest median of any area at 13.6 weeks, down from 15.1 in September, with 32.2% of tests beyond 21 weeks. The North East followed at 12.7 weeks. London came third on the median at 12.0 weeks, a fall of 2.3 weeks on September’s 14.3, but carried the longest tail of any area in the table at 38.4%, down from 40.5% a month earlier.

The East of England and the West Midlands have the next longest tails among the English regions. Their medians look moderate at 10.4 and 10.3 weeks, yet 32.5% and 31.1% of their tests came after more than 21 weeks. The North West recorded 11.0 weeks and 26.6%. The East Midlands logged 9.9 weeks and 26.4%, and the South East 9.6 weeks and 27.0%.

At the better end, the South West posted the shortest median of any English region at 7.9 weeks, with 19.7% beyond 21 weeks, and it also had 30.4% of its standard slots (17,830 of 58,671) still unbooked on the last Monday of October. Yorkshire and the Humber recorded a 10.0 week median but the lowest tail of any English region at 18.4%. Wales, at 8.0 weeks and 10.4%, had 44.4% of its slots (14,581 of 32,857) unbooked. London, by contrast, had 2.7% left: 2,304 of 84,710.

The gap between a median and a tail is wide enough to change which area looks best. The North East has a longer median than London, yet its tail of 23.2% is far shorter than London’s 38.4%. A learner choosing where to look for a date reads both numbers, not one.

Centre by Centre, the Range Is Wider Than Any Regional Average

DVSA’s test centre table, DRT122F, carries October rows for 320 centres. Of the 317 that report a median wait, 117 sit at 14 weeks or more, more than a third. On the availability measure, 99 centre rows show 24.0 weeks, the same length as the booking calendar DVSA releases. Watford and Worthing are two of them.

The two measures do not always agree. Warwick (Wedgenock House) shows 24.0 weeks to 10% availability, yet its median wait for tests taken in October was 8.0 weeks. Availability reports how far ahead a learner had to look for a reasonable choice of slots at the end of October, while the median reports what those who sat a test in October experienced. A centre can look healthy in the tests already taken and thin on slots ahead.

At the opposite end, Kendal (Oxenholme Road) reaches 10% availability in 3.0 weeks, Barrow in Furness in 3.3, Barnstaple in 3.8 and Bristol (Kingswood) in 4.0. The longest medians belong to Scottish centres: Callander at 31.5 weeks, Arbroath at 27.4 and Mallaig at 27.3. In London, Hornchurch recorded 22.9 weeks, Tolworth 22.3 and Pinner 21.4.

The centre table does not show how many tests stand behind each median, so a single centre can swing on a handful of tests. Treat a centre figure as a cue to check the booking service, not as a verdict. Readers comparing neighbouring sites can look at driving test centres that give better odds in an earlier look at the same DVSA data.

How to Look for an Earlier Slot and What the Booking Rules Allow

DVSA adds a new week of appointments at 6am every Monday, bank holidays included, and the week it adds is 24 weeks in the future. Appointments run to 25 April 2027 now. On 16 November the week beginning 26 April 2027 opens, followed by 3 May 2027 on 23 November and 10 May 2027 on 30 November.

Earlier appointments do not arrive in that Monday release. They appear when someone cancels, when someone changes a booking or when DVSA adds examiner availability. DVSA says “There is no best time to look for an earlier appointment.” Joining the 6am queue brings no benefit to a learner who wants a test sooner than 24 weeks away, and DVSA states it lengthens the queuing time for people who do want the 24 week slot.

Searching has limits. Repeated searches over a short period can bring a “search limit reached” message, a temporary block or an Error 15, and DVSA tells users to avoid more than one device at a time. Once a learner picks a slot and accepts the timing warning, 15 minutes remain to finish the booking, and the service signs people out after 30 minutes of inactivity.

Most centres run no waiting list or cancellation list. At some centres that do not open every day, the service offers an option to put a test on hold, and DVSA emails a date if it finds one. DVSA cannot notify learners when new or earlier appointments appear, and customer service agents see the same slots a learner sees and cannot create new ones, so a phone call does not shift the date.

Every move now draws on a limited allowance. The Secretary of State for Transport, Heidi Alexander, announced the outcome of DVSA’s consultation on 12 November 2025, after 102,224 responses, and DVSA brought the rules in by stages. The limit of 2 changes to a booked test, down from 6, applies from 31 March 2026. From 12 May 2026 only the learner can book and manage a test, and unofficial services that scan the booking service for tests are not allowed. From 9 June 2026 a test can move only to the 3 centres nearest to where it is booked, or back to the centre first booked.

A change means a new date or time, a new centre, or a swap with another learner, and DVSA counts a new date and a new centre made together as one change. A change DVSA makes itself, for example in bad weather, does not use up the allowance. A learner who runs out of changes has to cancel and rebook, and DVSA returns the whole fee for a cancellation made ten or more full working days ahead of the test. The rule has its own explainer on two changes to a booked test.

DVSA’s stated aim was a fairer system and an end to excessive fees for booking tests, which targets the resale of driving test slots.

With two changes in total, spend one on a slot that shaves weeks, not days. Moving the date and the centre in one step costs a single change. A learner who accepts a date a fortnight earlier could have nothing left when a better date appears at the home centre.

DVSA updates these tables on the second Wednesday of each month, so the November figures are due on 9 December.

Want more car content? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for the best automotive news and analysis on the internet.

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to follow us on Microsoft Start.

Sources

• DVSA: Driving test and theory test data: cars
• DVSA: Driving test appointments: release dates and finding earlier tests
• DVSA: Improving car driving test booking rules
• DVSA: Changes to driving test booking rules in 2026

Reviewed by Preetam Gadekar