The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has introduced a new rule affecting approximately two million drivers in an effort to reduce waiting times for driving tests. Under the new regulation, learner drivers in England can only swap their test to one of the three test centres closest to their original booking location.
New rule aims to curb test swapping
Wait times for driving tests across Britain often exceed five months. The new rule is designed to prevent learners from booking the soonest available test anywhere and then making a series of swaps to secure a slot closer to home. This practice has contributed to longer wait times and a high number of no-shows.
No-show numbers and reselling concerns
In 2025, nearly two million driving tests were booked in the UK, but 64,500 of those were not attended. Some of these no-shows are believed to be the result of third-party resellers using bots to book tests and then charging inflated prices, but failing to sell them. The previous year saw around 52,000 no-shows.
Beverley Warmington, DVSA's chief executive, stated: "The location restrictions introduced on 9 June will help to deter bookings at locations where learners do not intend to take their test." She added that the DVSA is "determined to reduce waiting times further" and has delivered over 217,000 additional tests between June 2025 and April 2026, partly with the help of military driving examiners.
Current wait times across Britain
According to DVSA figures for April 2026, the average wait time for a driving test in England is 22.7 weeks, in Scotland 22.9 weeks, and in Wales 17.3 weeks. One learner driver reported waking up at 5:30am every Monday to try to book a test, only to find herself in a queue of thousands. Her test date is seven months away.
"Some of my friends who need to drive for work were booking tests at test centres not local to them in areas that they hadn't really driven before... just so that they could get the test and just try and pass as fast as they could," the 21-year-old learner said.
