Giving you a clearer picture of driving test waiting times

Learner drivers, driving instructors, driving schools and associations and the public deserve a clear and honest picture of how the driving test service is performing.

That's why today we're publishing new data on GOV.UK that gives a fuller view of waiting times than ever before - and we'll be updating it every month, broken down by each individual driving test centre.

Why we're giving you more data about waiting times and test availability

Many of you will be familiar with the waiting time figure we currently use. Although this is widely seen as the average time people wait for a test, it’s actually the number of weeks until at least 10% of weekly test appointments at a centre are still available to book. We call it the existing 10% availability measure and this blog post from John Selbey in October 2023 explains what the driving test waiting time actually means.

It's a useful indicator of availability at the point of booking, but a National Audit Office (NAO) investigation last year found it does not reflect how long learners actually wait between booking and taking their test. The NAO suggested that we should explore whether there is alternative data which more accurately reflects the actual experience of learners.

We've acted on that finding and your feedback, and from today, we’re starting to report some additional measures to help give you a clearer picture of driving test waiting times.

What the new data includes

The additional pieces of data we are now reporting are:

the average waiting time between booking and taking a driving test (median) the number of tests provided in a month through driving examiner overtime the total number of appointments that we’ve made available over the next 24 weeks of the booking window (as measured at the end of the month) the total number of tests that have already been booked in that booking window the total number of tests that are still available to book in the booking window the percentage of tests that are still available to book in the booking window

All of this is available at national, regional and driving test centre level. It will be updated on the second Wednesday of each month with the previous month’s data.

View the new data on driving test waiting times and availability.

Why the median waiting time is important

The median waiting time between booking and taking a test is an important addition.

Because it's based on every single completed test, it gives a much more honest picture of what learners are actually experiencing.

To work it out, we take every test completed in the month and line them all up in order, from the shortest wait to the longest. The median is simply the waiting time of the person in the middle of that line.

This means half of all learners waited less time than the median figure, and half waited longer.

What the data tells us - and why it matters for you

The new data helps explain something many of you will have noticed in practice: the headline availability figure does not always match what your pupils are actually experiencing.

In some centres, learners are getting tests significantly sooner than the existing 10% availability measure suggests.

At Darlington, for example, the existing measure stood at 13 weeks in May 2026 - but the median waiting time was just 6.7 weeks. This means half of all learners were taking their test in roughly half the time as the existing figure implied.

Similar gaps appear at test centres like St Helens (16.5 weeks vs 6.1 weeks median), Barrow in Furness (12 weeks vs 4.6 weeks median) and across several Yorkshire centres including Wakefield (15.8 weeks vs 5.7 weeks median) and Bradford Thornbury (15.5 weeks vs 4.9 weeks median).

For instructors in these areas, this is good news. It’s the kind of detail that can help you have better conversations with your pupils about when to expect their test.

However, the data also shows that in other parts of the country, waits remain genuinely long by both measures.

Pinner (10% measure: 24 weeks, median: 23 weeks), Birmingham Kingstanding (24 weeks vs 23 weeks median) and Sidcup (24 weeks vs 22 weeks median) are among them. Banbury had the highest median of any centre in England at 24.3 weeks.

How the median can be higher than 24 weeks

That last example raises an interesting question; how can the median waiting time be higher than 24 weeks?

This happens when a learner books near the end of the booking window and later postpones their test - by which point the new date falls beyond the original 24-week window. The median includes all completed tests, whether learners moved their appointment earlier or later.

We know these longer waiting times are frustrating for you and for your pupils, and it's exactly why we're publishing this level of detail - so that the experience of all learners is visible and we can be held to account for improving it.

How each region performed in May 2026

The charts below summarises performance by region - you can find the full breakdown for each individual test centre in the data published on GOV.UK today.

Why the median waiting time looks shorter than the existing 10% availability figure

In many cases, the median waiting time is shorter – and in some cases significantly shorter - than the existing 10% availability figure. It reflects something important about how the two measures work. Understanding the difference will help you explain it to your pupils.

The existing 10% availability measure tells you how far into the future you need to look before an ample number of appointments are still available to book. A centre showing a figure of 22 weeks is because, in the weeks before that point, fewer than 10% of appointments are still available.

But "fewer than 10% available" does not mean zero. At a busy centre doing 200 tests a week, even 5% availability means 10 slots still open in that week. Across a region with dozens of centres, that can mean hundreds of bookable appointments every week before the 22-week point. Across the country as a whole, it could mean thousands.

So while the existing 10% availability measure might read as 22 weeks, learners who check regularly and pick up cancellations can often secure a test much sooner than that figure implies. And this is exactly what the new median data captures. It counts every test actually taken in the month and finds the middle value.

When the national median is 9.7 weeks against a 10% availability measure of 21.8 weeks, it tells us that half of all learners who took a test in May waited less than 9.7 weeks - even though the existing 10% availability figure suggests they faced a much longer wait.

This is also why the median is a better guide for the conversations you have with pupils. Rather than telling them to expect a 20-plus week wait, the data suggests that learners who check regularly for earlier slots are often taking their test within 10 weeks or less.

Encouraging your pupils to check availability regularly can make a real difference.

The action we're taking

This transparency commitment builds on the steps we’re already taking to improve waiting times.

Between June 2025 and May 2026, we did close to a quarter of a million extra car driving tests compared to the same time the previous year. Driving examiner numbers are at their highest level since 2019.

We’ve changed the booking rules to protect your pupils from exploitation by unofficial services and resellers. We've stopped it being possible to hoard tests at a test centre with no intention of taking tests there, only to move them elsewhere in the country.

We recognise that many learners are still experiencing extended waits, and we're not complacent about that. Our goal remains to reduce waiting times across Great Britain. Publishing this richer data openly and regularly means you - and your pupils - can track our progress honestly, centre by centre.

https://despatch.blog.gov.uk/2026/06/18/giving-you-a-clearer-picture-of-driving-test-waiting-times/

seen at 15:12, 18 June in Despatch for driver and rider trainers.