politics
3% of Driving Examiner Applicants Qualify as Test Backlog Persists
Last year 19,138 people started applications to become driving examiners but only 327 passed all stages, according to Department for Transport data. Justin Stanbrook took nine months and five rounds of forms, tests and role plays to secure the role, then worked seven years before leaving in 2023 over pay and safety concerns.
May 9, 3:46 PM·2m read1 source
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Only 327 applicants, or 3 per cent, passed all stages to become a driving examiner last year even as test waiting times in England reached 22 weeks. The Department for Transport parliamentary response showed 19,138 applications were started and 11,132 were completed.
Currently there are 1,604 driving examiners, the most in eight years, yet a National Audit Office report in December found about 1,950 were needed to clear the backlog.
Justin Stanbrook took nine months and five rounds of application forms, driving tests and role plays to be offered a job as a driving examiner. He completed another six weeks of training before he was able to adjudicate driving tests. Stanbrook worked as a driving examiner for seven years before leaving his job in 2023.
The day before Stanbrook handed in his notice, a learner driver not in a dual-controlled vehicle pulled out onto a dual carriageway in Plymouth. He grabbed the handbrake and wheel to prevent a crash. In seven years Stanbrook's pay rose from £26,800 to £28,000.
"I know so many people that have left," Stanbrook said. "It's the way they're treated, the way the job has become extremely scary. 6 per cent, was not enough to balance the negatives of the job.
Driving test waiting times in England currently sit at 22 weeks, with 70 per cent of test centres operating at the maximum 24-week wait time. The latest figures are from September. Fourteen out of Rob Watts's current 25 learners are test ready but cannot find test slots until August at the earliest.
