DVSA has conducted more than 2.13 million practical driving tests in the 12 months to August 2026, the highest rolling 12-month figure on record.
The latest figures show more than 906,000 tests were carried out between April and August 2026, an increase of 15.5% compared with the same period last year.
Test availability has also increased, according to the under pressure regulator. On 1 September 2026, DVSA says there were 50,000 more tests available than on the same date in 2025.
Driving examiner numbers are now at their highest level since November 2017, as DVSA continues efforts to increase testing capacity and reduce waiting times.
Pass rates have also risen, remaining above 50% for nine consecutive months. In August 2026, 52.1% of learners passed their practical driving test, the highest level recorded since April 2021.
DVSA has also acknowledged the contribution of Driver Trainers, highlighting the role instructors continue to play in helping learners prepare properly and ensuring pupils attend their test when they are genuinely ready.
New waiting-time data published
Alongside the record test delivery figures, DVSA is publishing more detailed information showing how long learners are waiting between booking and taking their practical test.
In August 2026, 40% of learners across Great Britain waited less than seven weeks between booking and taking their test.
This means six in ten learners were still waiting seven weeks or longer.
The new data will be published at national, regional and individual driving test centre level, giving Driver Trainers and learners a clearer picture of where pressures remain and where improvements are being made.
DVSA says the additional information forms part of its commitment to greater transparency around waiting times and follows a recommendation from the National Audit Office to provide clearer information on how long learners are actually waiting between booking and taking their test.
Headline figures only tell part of the story
DIA Chief Executive Carly Brookfield welcomed the increase in test delivery and capacity, but said the latest figures also underline how much work remains to be done.
“Delivering a record number of tests is an achievement and progress that should be recognised. It is also right that DVSA acknowledges the contribution ADIs make in ensuring learners are properly prepared and genuinely ready for tests.
“However, headline numbers only tell part of the story. If just 40% of learners are taking their test within seven weeks, that still means six in ten are waiting longer. For those learners, and the trainers trying to manage their learning journey around limited test availability, the pressure is still very real.
And another ‘but’ is when are we going to see recovery of service spread to qualifying and standards checks of instructor trainees and trainers? Part 2, 3 and Standards Check delivery is still poor with thousands of PDIs investing in becoming licenced but struggling to get through testing due to backlogs, with any accompanying issue of no general resumption of Standards Checks.
“The key now is whether this increased capacity translates into sustained improvements on the ground. Record test delivery is positive, but the ultimate measure of recovery has to be a testing service that learners and the professional training community can access when they need it.”
DVSA says it will continue increasing test availability as part of its wider work to reduce waiting times and improve access to practical tests.
The agency has also pointed to changes introduced to the driving test booking system earlier this year, including limits on the number of changes that can be made to a test, restrictions allowing only learners to book tests, and geographical limits on changing test locations.
DIA will continue to monitor the latest waiting-time data and the impact of these changes on Driver Trainers and their pupils.
Read the full DVSA driving test waiting times and availability report here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/driving-test-and-theory-test-data-cars#car-driving-test-waiting-time-and-availability-data
Pass rate increases – result of better pupil preparation, a loosening of the test threshold or pupil fear of having to go back to the booking system for a second go?
Whilst we, and DVSA, recognise the role of professional trainers in improving pupil preparedness for test, and beyond the test, we are catching a whiff of cynicism from within the profession at the continuing upward trend in the pass rate.
Some trainers, at the coalface of training and testing (and who have on the ground experience of pupil and local test centre performance) have hypothesised that higher pass rates may be down to more than just pupils having longer to prepare for test (as they wait for a slot).
The fruits of the labours of their professional instructor, or pupils being on their A-game due to fear of failing and having to go back into a crowded booking system with still poor availability don’t quite tally. Whatever the gains made on supply, waiting times are still over 20 weeks nationally.
One theory doing the rounds is that the test threshold has been loosened – a polite way of questioning whether DVSA have made it easier to pass – so more pass candidates through and out of the crowded and pressured system.
DIA is feeding this back to DVSA and asking for their response.
We’d like to think this view is just conjecture, but trainers point to the rise of the ring-round pupils (who have clearly not kept up their training with their original trainer whilst waiting for a test, and who end up frantically calling any trainer they can grab when they bag a slot). This is twinned with anecdotal evidence of an increase in parents claiming they’ve been providing more support in the training process themselves (rather than continue to invest in a professional training, in a bid to save costs the longer the gap becomes between being trained to test ready standard, and actually getting a test slot).
Regardless, the real test of the increasing pass rate over the last 9 months is when this particular cohort of new licencees hit the road and are driving independently – and in how safe and competent they are. Should DVSA therefore be looking to better track the increasing pass rate against pupil performance six months and a year after the test, now more than ever – given this is such a zeitgeist moment in pass rates?
DIA truly hopes the pass rate increase means a genuine increase in pupil preparedness for test, and more importantly, an increase in the ability to drive independently and safely post-test, across the board and we would urge the agency to look at some focused research to quantify that.
4 responses
There was never a problem with the test rate pre Covid. Utter bullsh*t. Yes ADI’s have found this very stressful trying to accommodate tests at very short notice. Parents reigning in their spend on lessons is also affecting students with 2-3 week gaps in lessons without practice with parents. Oh dear the BOT’s are still winning, so DSA is continuing to fail our industry!
Hi,
I find this to be the biggest load of rubbish that I have heard coming out of the DVSA.
If you where to book a test at Burton on Trent or Loughborough today you are looking at a end of February date. I have had pupils fail at both centres and the next date being offered has been 6 months
away. So they have then booked in for a test at Nottingham 0r Melton Mowbray for 2 weeks later and passed. The DVSA is a joke
It needs a new booking system !!!!!
As far as getting the test bookings down I suggested to the DVSA just after covid, that it might not be a bad idea to employ on a part time basis all the ADI’s that all so hold a fleet and instructor training licence to help out!
7 weeks? That’s simply not true!
We have one booked it was nearly 7 months!
I agree with other trainers. I believe the test threshold has been lowered. A couple of phrases I have over heard examiners saying……. ‘de-escalation of the back log’ ‘no right for the dvsa even say the words road safety’.
DVSA are being duplicitous and dishonest