Driving test examiners announce four-day strike

Examiners fear a target of 150,000 extra tests by March poses safety risks

Almost 2,000 driving test examiners will strike for four consecutive days next month in a row over workloads.

The walkouts across 270 test centres in England, Scotland and Wales will take place from 8 to 11 February.

Examiners will strike in protest at "flawed" plans demanding they deliver 150,000 more tests by the end of March to help clear a backlog.

The DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) branded the strike decision "disappointing".

All eligible managers and administrative staff in the DVSA have been asked to return to carrying out driving tests full time in a bid to hit the target.

But examiners fear delivering the extra tests could pose "significant" safety risks for them and their customers, and will erode their terms and conditions.

• Learners travelling 400 miles to take driving test

• New rules announced to tackle driving test backlog

Long waits

Waiting times for a driving test soared to an average peak of 24 weeks in November 2022, partly down to Covid lockdowns over the previous two years.

Before the pandemic, the average wait time from booking the test online was about six weeks.

The Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Mark Serwotka said examiners want to maintain high standards but are "unable to do that if they're expected to work longer and longer hours".

"If Mark Harper (Transport Secretary) was serious about reducing the backlog, he would invest in DVSA, employing more examiners, not just expecting the existing ones to work harder," he added.

DVSA chief executive Loveday Ryder said the strike action would cause an impact to its services, but said candidates should attend their test as usual unless they were contacted directly.

She added: "Learners expect a seven-day per week service, and, as a publicly funded body, DVSA wants to provide that."

Driving instructor Naughton Dunn, from Ludlow, Shropshire, told the BBC in December that candidates as far away as Essex and Edinburgh had contacted him for lessons.

They had booked tests in the town after searching nationwide and wanted to familiarise themselves with the likely route, he said.

Last year, the DVSA announced other measures to help tackle the backlog.

They included changing rules to stop drivers booking tests before they are ready and lengthening the wait for a retest for those who fail.

In December, the average wait time fell to 17.4 weeks with more than 150,000 tests - a record for the month - carried out, according to the DVSA.

It has previously pledged to take "all measures we can to reduce driving test waiting times" including the recruitment of almost 500 new driving examiners.