§ Mr. BayleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what percentage of people taking their driving test in March 199330 had waited more than six weeks for their test.
§ Mr. KeyResponsibility for the subject of this question has been delegated to the Driving Standards Agency under its chief executive Dr. S. J. Ford. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Dr. S. J. Ford to Mr. Hugh Bayley, dated 7 February 1994:
253WThe Secretary of State for Transport has asked me to reply to your Question about the percentage of people taking their driving test in March 1993 who had waited more than six weeks for their test.
The Agency measures the waiting time for tests on the basis of the size of the queue waiting for a test in relation to the examiner resource available to conduct tests. It does not have statistics that measure precisely the wait experienced by individual customers. Instead we use our annual, independent customer surveys to provide insight into the experiences of customers.
The last such survey was conducted in May 1993. The sample of candidates surveyed was selected from those who had taken a test in the previous two months. The response, from nearly 2,000 driving test candidates across the country, indicated that 90 per cent. waited 6 weeks or less between the date of making the appointment and the date the test was conducted.
During January and February 1993, when customers would generally have been seeking test appointments in March, appointments were available at over 90 per cent. of our permanent centres within 6 weeks and at all permanent centres within 10 weeks, with an average of 3 to 4 weeks ahead of the date of application.