Update: Driving test waiting rooms.. 😡 9 TC What a disappointment

As we set out on 21 October we’ve been working with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and are assessing our individual centres to see how some waiting rooms could be made safely available to you and others waiting for candidates to return from test.

From Friday 30 October we’ll be opening waiting rooms at 9 test centres across England and Scotland. We will not be opening any in Wales as we are not currently providing a driver testing service in Wales due to the Welsh firebreak.

It continues to be our top priority to stop the spread of COVID-19 and protect you, your pupils and our examiners.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to reopen all our test centre waiting rooms because some of our centres are too small. So that we can continue to provide a testing service from some of our centres, waiting rooms have had to be repurposed for our own staff to allow them to socially distance from each other at work.

Test centres waiting rooms opening

The 9 test centres we are opening initially are:

• Alness

• Darlington MPTC

• Chesterfield

• Garretts Green

• Widnes

• Cambridge Brookmount Court

• Gillingham GVTS

• Maidstone

• Swindon MPTC

Why have these test centres been chosen?

These test centres have been chosen because:

• we've be able to make them COVID-safe relatively quickly and simply

• visitors have no other local amenities in walking distance

• they are geographically spread across England and Scotland

What this means for you

If your local test centre is in the initial rollout, you’ll receive another email from us to explain the measures that have been put in place to help keep you, our examiners and others waiting at the site safe. These measures will include:

• wearing face covering at all times inside the waiting room

• recording a visit by scan the QR code and ‘check in’ or recording it on a paper log

• asking visitors to wipe down touch points when they enter the waiting room and before they leave

We understand that you may be disappointed if your local test centre is not included in the initial rollout.

Once we have reviewed the initial rollout and feedback from the waiting room visitors and examiners, we will assess how we can safely open up other waiting rooms around the country.

We’ll update you again about waiting rooms in a couple of weeks.

Working with HSE and instructor associations

We’ll continue to work with HSE and advise instructor associations on how more of our waiting rooms could be made safely available in line with COVID-secure measures.