UK Limits Driving Test Swaps to Three Nearest Centres to Cut No-Shows and Wasted Slots
New DVSA rules restrict test swaps after 64,500 no-shows last year. Average waits exceed five months across Britain.
Learner drivers in the UK can now only swap a driving test booking to one of the three centres nearest their original location. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency introduced the restriction on 9 June to reduce the number of tests booked at distant sites and later cancelled. 2 percent rate that exceeded the 52,000 no-shows recorded the previous year.
The DVSA said some of those wasted slots had been secured by third-party resellers using bots to list inflated prices that later went unsold. Average waiting times for a practical test now exceed five months. 3 weeks in Wales.
Between June 2025 and April 2026 the agency delivered more than 217,000 additional tests, partly by deploying military driving examiners. Emma, a 21-year-old learner in West London, told the BBC she wakes at 05:30 every Monday to join online queues of thousands. She secured a test near her home but must wait seven months.
"I'm then paying for lessons every week, which is fine, it's good to have the practice, 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," she said. Her instructor Donovan, who has used the same local centre for ten years, recalled a six-month stretch when none of his students could book there.
"Effectively, you had people booking tests in Scotland just to get the date and then changing it to London when one became available," he said.
She noted that Bury St Edmunds typically lists about 30 daily no-shows and called for penalties for non-attendance.
