Learners Wait 21.5 Weeks for a Test as DVSA Misses Its 7 Week Target

• DVSA’s annual report for 2025 to 2026 puts the car practical test wait at 21.5 weeks, against a target of 7 weeks or fewer, and the target was marked “Missed”.
• DVSA says a further 450,000 to 500,000 tests above normal capacity are needed to bring waits back to target, to be worked through over the next 18 months.
• Last year’s wait was 21.9 weeks, so the measure improved by 0.4 of a week while DVSA delivered 2.169 million car tests, above its 1.975 million target.

Learners Wait Three Times Longer Than DVSA Promised for a Driving Test

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency published its annual report and accounts for 2025 to 2026 on 14 July 2026, and the figure learner drivers will care about most sits in its performance table. The wait for a car practical driving test stood at 21.5 weeks at the end of the year. DVSA’s target is 7 weeks or fewer, and the report marks the result as missed.

The gap between target and outcome is 14.5 weeks, which means the wait is a little over three times the level DVSA says it should be. In 2024 to 2025 the figure was 21.9 weeks, so the improvement over twelve months is 0.4 of a week. The report itself describes waiting times as “persistently high” and “well above target”.

Other test types look very different. The theory test wait was 3.4 weeks against a target of 4 weeks or less. Vocational practical tests were at 2.5 weeks against a 3 week target. Motorcycle practical tests were at 3.4 weeks for module 1 and 4.3 weeks for module 2, against a 6 week target. Those three targets were all met, which leaves the car practical test as the one waiting time that has drifted far from its goal.

How DVSA Measures the 21.5 Week Wait

The report is open about how the number is built. The measure reflects the earliest week in which 10 percent of slots are available in the booking window, and it is capped at 24 weeks. That is not the same as the time a typical learner waits between booking and sitting a test, and DVSA says it is developing a median wait measure that would show the time from booking to test.

The distinction is worth knowing. A learner who books a slot well in advance, or who takes whatever date is offered, could sit a test sooner or later than 21.5 weeks after booking. The 21.5 weeks tells drivers how far ahead the booking system is stretched, and DVSA has added monthly waiting time forecasts and median wait reporting to its performance dashboards as part of its response.

The Backlog Behind the Wait

DVSA delivered 2.169 million car practical tests in 2025 to 2026. Its target was 1.975 million by March 2026, so it beat that goal, and the previous year’s total was 1.96 million. The agency says its analysis shows an additional 450,000 to 500,000 tests, above normal capacity, are required to return waits to target. It describes that as a backlog to be worked through over the next 18 months.

Examiner numbers have risen. The active car driving examiner workforce reached around 1,604 full time equivalents in March 2026, a 7 percent increase on the year and the highest level reported for any year back to 2018. DVSA also used qualified Ministry of Defence examiners to add car practical test capacity, and the Chair’s statement refers to an exceptional payment for driving examiners agreed to support retention. The agency says it will keep expanding capacity through sustained recruitment.

The report says DVSA accepted the National Audit Office’s recommendations in full. Those cover better governance, including giving DVSA the ability to deal with abuse of the booking system, stronger recruitment and retention, a closer look at what drives demand, and alternative waiting time measures. A new digital platform is also being built to replace outdated driving test systems.

What the Backlog Numbers Imply

The figures in the report allow a few simple calculations. DVSA delivered 2.169 million car practical tests against 1.96 million the year before, an increase of about 209,000 tests, or close to 11 percent. Even with that rise, the waiting time barely moved, from 21.9 weeks to 21.5 weeks. The 2025 to 2026 total also beat the 1.975 million target by about 194,000 tests, or close to 10 percent, so the target was met while the waiting time target was missed.

The extra 450,000 to 500,000 tests DVSA says it needs are equal to between 21 and 23 percent of a full year’s output at the 2025 to 2026 rate. Spread over the 18 months the agency has given itself, that is an additional 300,000 to 333,000 tests a year on top of normal capacity, or roughly 14 to 15 percent more than the year just reported.

The 7 week target has no date attached to it in the performance table. The report says the target is “7 weeks or fewer” and gives no deadline, and it separately says the backlog is to be worked through over the next 18 months. The report does not link the two figures, so it gives no date by which the 21.5 week wait is expected to reach the 7 week target.

What Changes for Learners Booking a Test

The annual report records that DVSA introduced a limit of two changes to a test date for each candidate. It lists further booking reforms planned for 2026 to 2027: restricting the resale of test slots, blocking automated booking tools, and moderating movement between test centres. Our earlier coverage of the two test change limit sets out how that rule works for individual learners.

The report also gives a reason to think carefully before booking. DVSA’s “Ready to Pass?” campaign targets test readiness, and the report says around 50 percent of learners fail at the first attempt. With a wait of nearly five months for the next available slot, a failed attempt means joining that queue again, subject to the two change limit on moving a date.

For anyone planning a test, the practical points from the report are simple. The two change limit means a date should only be booked when the learner and instructor are confident of being ready. Slots sold on by third parties are a target of the planned reforms, and automated booking tools are planned to be blocked, so the official booking service remains the route the agency expects learners to use.

What DVSA’s Complaints Record Shows

The report also covers complaints about the agency. The DfT Independent Complaints Assessor reviewed 106 complaints in the year. Of those, 82 were not upheld, 20 were partially upheld, 2 were upheld in full and 2 were withdrawn. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman accepted none for formal investigation. The agency reported 2 personal data incidents to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The report does not break out how many of the 106 complaints concerned driving test availability. So it is not possible to say from this document how much of the complaint volume is linked to waiting times.

Learners and instructors who want to follow progress can check the performance dashboards DVSA publishes, which now carry the monthly waiting time forecasts the report describes. Those forecasts show whether the 21.5 week figure is falling as the extra examiners and the extra tests take effect.

The overall position, according to DVSA’s own figures, is a wait that is three times its target, a backlog of up to half a million tests, an examiner workforce at its highest in eight years, and an 18 month timetable to clear the extra demand. Drivers following the story can check the next DVSA performance dashboard for the new median wait figure, which will give a clearer view of what learners actually experience than the 10 percent slot measure.

Sources

• GOV.UK: DVSA annual report and accounts, 2025 to 2026
• GOV.UK: DVSA annual report and accounts 2025 to 2026 (PDF)