What’s been announced?

In her statement, the Transport Secretary acknowledged that despite progress under the DVSA’s 7-Point Plan, “customers are not seeing the immediate effect of these measures.” To speed up recovery and unlock more test appointments, the following actions have now been confirmed:

• Qualified DVSA staff in non-testing roles will be invited to return to the frontline to conduct driving tests.

• Permanent trainer numbers will be doubled, allowing new examiners to be trained more quickly.

• Overtime pay incentives for driving examiners are being reinstated to boost testing capacity.

An accelerated consultation will launch in May 2025 to deliver a fairer booking system and curb abuse by third-party bots and resellers.

While this announcement includes positive developments – notably the increase in examiner training capacity and expediting measures to tackle booking system abuse – these are measures that, in the eyes of many instructors, should have been prioritised much earlier in the recovery process.