More than 64,000 learner drivers failed to turn up for their practical driving test last year, official figures show – wasted slots that have contributed to average waiting times of more than five months across Britain.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) recorded 64,500 no-shows in 2025, up from 52,000 the previous year, out of a total of 1,998,608 tests booked. That means 3.2% of appointments were simply abandoned, some after being snapped up by third-party resellers using bots who then could not sell them on.
“64,500 learner drivers missed tests last year; new rules limit swaps to three nearest centres.”
In response, the DVSA has tightened booking rules so that learners can now only swap their test to the three centres nearest to their original booking, rather than switching to any available slot anywhere in the country.
Donovan, a driving instructor who has been using his local test centre for a decade, said the previous system had been gamed: “Effectively, you had people booking tests in Scotland just to get the date and then changing it to London when one became available.” He hopes the changes “will reduce people booking tests that they have no intention of taking” and “free up a bit more space on the booking system”.
For learners like Emma, the system has been a source of grinding frustration. The 21-year-old, who has been learning to drive in West London for nearly a year, wakes at 05:30 every Monday to try to book a test, only to find herself in a queue of thousands. She eventually secured a slot – but it 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,” she said. “I'm then paying for lessons every week, which is fine, it's good to have the practise, but when you've got so long until your test, it's just a little bit of a waste of money and a massive time burden.”
According to DVSA data for April 2026, the average wait time in England is 22.7 weeks, in Scotland 22.9 weeks and in Wales 17.3 weeks.
But Carly Brookfield, chief executive of the Driving Instructors Association, said the industry “doesn't have a huge amount of confidence that any of these measures are realistically fixing the booking system problem”.