Military examiners brought in to cut driving test wait times

The UK government has announced new measures to tackle driving test wait times, which include bringing in military examiners.

Transport minister Heidi Alexander said 35 testers from the Ministry of Defence will be used one day a week for a year in an effort to bring down today’s 21-week average wait time. 

Meanwhile, current examiners will be offered a £5000 “retention payment” to slow down the number leaving the profession. So far this year, a recruitment drive has achieved a net gain of just 40, despite 316 new examiners joining.

Speaking to the Transport Select Committee on Wednesday morning, Alexander confirmed these measures were being brought in because the government’s previous target of cutting wait times to seven weeks by next summer wouldn’t be achieved.

“We do need to see more progress there,” she told the committee. “I can’t sit here today and tell you that I’m going to meet the summer 2026 deadline either. Demand is still very high, and the approaches that DVSA have taken so far have not been sufficient to meet this level of demand.”

Alexander also announced that driving tests will be made bookable only by learner drivers themselves and not by third parties, in an effort to stop resellers.

What’s more, the number of times the learner can move or swap their test is being limited, as will the distance the test can be moved to once it has been booked with a specific test centre.

Alexander said these measures were being brought in to stop people being “exploited” by “bots” and touts.

The news was backed by Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation. “It is good to see steps being put in place to put a stop to those touting tests to frustrated learners,” he said.

“What will really deter the touts and tackle the queues would be a return to the more reasonable pre-Covid waiting time for tests, which we hope the arrival of a platoon of military examiners alongside the new DVSA recruits will help deliver.”