Driving tests in England to be suspended


Driving tests in England to be suspended

The Government has announced new national restrictions will be in place in England from Thursday 5 November until Wednesday 2 December to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

We will continue to keep the situation under review in line with Government advice.

Driving lessons in England

The Government has announced that during these dates, driving lessons should not take place in England.

Your pupils can still have private practice using their own car as long as they and the supervising driver are from the same household and it is travel for work, education or for other legally permitted exemptions.

What this means for driving tests

Further to the announcement from the Government, all driving tests in England will be suspended from Thursday 5 November and restart on Wednesday 2 December.

This includes ADI part 2 and 3 tests and standards checks.

We are emailing everyone with a test booked between Thursday 5 November and Tuesday 1 December to let them know it will be rescheduled to a new time and date.

We will continue to keep the situation under review in line with Government advice.

Critical workers tests and lessons

Given the short period of time the new restrictions will be in place, we will not be offering a critical worker priority service. We will keep this under review.

This means that you should not offer lessons to critical workers in England during the new national restrictions period.

Critical workers will need to follow the Government’s travel guidance.

If you've booked a test for your pupils

If you have booked a test for any of your pupils, you will receive an email to let you know it will be rescheduled to a new time and date. You will need to contact your pupil to let them know.  

It could take up to a week for us to reschedule all tests so please ask your pupils to be patient.

If the rescheduled test time and date isn’t suitable

If the new time and date is not suitable for you or your pupil, you can choose a new time and date on GOV.UK. You will need your pupil’s driving licence number to do this. Your pupil does not need to pay again to do this.

Travelling out of England for a test

Your pupils should not travel out of England to take a driving test. If they travel out of England to come to their driving test our examiners will not be able to test them.

If you live in England but your pupil does not, you will need to follow the government guidance on travelling and work.

Waiting rooms in England

During the national restrictions in England we will also be pausing our plans to open up other waiting rooms in England until after 2 December.

We will assess the feedback from instructors, customers and our examiners from the waiting rooms opened as part of the initial rollout to see how we can safely continue to open up other waiting rooms in Scotland and Wales.

We’ll update you again about waiting rooms in Scotland and Wales next week.

Further information

The Government has also published guidance on financial support for business/self employed people in England that you can access.