DVSA Restricts Driving Test Swaps to Three Centres After 64,500 No-Shows

Learner drivers can now only exchange their practical driving test booking for slots at the three nearest test centres to their original location. This policy shift by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is a direct response to a reported 64,500 practical driving test no-shows recorded last year.

Average waiting times for a practical driving test currently surpass five months across Britain. The new regulations are intended to prevent learners from securing the earliest available test nationwide and then repeatedly swapping it for a slot closer to their residence. Data from April 2026 indicates waiting times of 22.7 weeks in England, 22.9 weeks in Scotland, and 17.3 weeks in Wales.

Of the 1,998,608 driving tests booked in the UK last year, 3.2% were unaccounted for due to no-shows, an increase from 52,000 the previous year. It is understood that a proportion of these were booked by third-party resellers utilising automated bots, aiming to charge inflated prices but failing to sell the slots.

A learner driver in West London, Emma, recounted waking at 05:30 every Monday to find herself in a queue of thousands attempting to book a test, now facing a seven-month wait. Her instructor, Donovan, confirmed the previous practice of individuals booking tests in distant locations, such as Scotland, solely to secure a date and then attempting to switch to London. He expressed hope that these changes would "reduce people booking tests that they have no intention of taking" and "free up a bit more space on the booking system."

However, Carly Brookfield, Chief Executive of the Driving Instructors Association, stated the industry holds "doesn't have a huge amount of confidence that any of these measures are realistically fixing the booking system problem."

Beverley Warmington, DVSA's Chief Executive, affirmed 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 remains "determined to reduce waiting times further," noting that over 217,000 additional tests were conducted between June 2025 and April 2026, partly through the deployment of military driving examiners.