DVSA - January 2025
We spoke to two Watchdog viewers who were struggling to get a practical driving test slot from the DVSA.
We met Chloe who couldn’t book in a test anywhere, but her driving instructor told her of a person that could acquire tests for a fee. Chloe ended up paying £200 rather than the standard £62. This left her feeling ripped off.
We also spoke to Lara who paid £160 to try and acquire a test from a third party. Lara was unsuccessful, so then went to try and book through the official website, but then came up against an error message. Confused she contacted the DVSA who said that her account had been flagged due to suspicious activity. Lara made a freedom of information request and discovered that her data had been used to book a number of tests in her name, throughout the UK.
We contacted DVSA and it said in the past financial year alone, it has provided almost 2 million tests and it is building on this progress by recruiting driving examiners while deploying enhanced bot protection to clamp down on candidates being overcharged for tests.
DVSA said it wants to see more learners passing first time. Learners can check out its Ready to Pass campaign and use its checklist to make sure they’ve had enough lessons so they can drive safely and are ready to pass first time.
It said it will soon bring forward measures to provide more driving tests, as it continues working closely with the Department for Transport to bring down waiting times as quickly as possible.
You can watch the full film here on iPlayer for 30 days - /iplayer/episode/m002768k/the-one-show-22012025?seriesId=unsliced
