Free driving tests could help learners ditch L plates sooner, MP suggests

Free driving tests could help learners ditch their L plates sooner, MPs have heard, if those who fail are hit with higher fees.

Alex Mayer, a Labour MP who failed her test “about five times”, told the Commons that people are “putting their lives on hold” as a result of a rising backlog.

Ms Mayer said she had been “contacted by constituents who have been told they have to wait up to nine months to get a driving test slot, which is utterly ridiculous”, and added that “people are booking up tests regardless of whether they’re ready to take a test or not”.

It is “cheaper sometimes to book that driving test time than it is to book a couple of lessons – and that cannot be right”, she said.

The Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard MP told MPs: “How about we do put up the fee, but we give everybody one free go at it?

“So basically, if you pass your driving test, you get a refund, so that would encourage everybody to only go for it when they really thought that they were going to pass it.

“I think that we could probably make it cost-neutral, and it would free up slots because – as I said – only those people who thought that they were definitely ready would go for it, then offset it by putting up the charges for everyone who fails again and again.

“(It) probably wouldn’t have done me any good – I failed my driving test about five times.”

MPs laughed as she continued: “I eventually managed it.”

Britain’s driving test backlog reached a new high last month, with 631,472 future practical driving tests booked as of the end of May, according to Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) figures.

The figure stood at 527,368 a year ago.

Responding, Commons Transport Committee chairwoman Ruth Cadbury described Ms Mayer’s idea as an “innovative suggestion”.

Ms Cadbury, the Labour MP for Brentford and Isleworth, said it “should be noted” by transport minister Mike Kane, who was in the chamber.