Consultation outcome

Improving the car driving test

• From: Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency
• Published: 14 July 2016
• Last updated: 15 April 2017 — See all updates

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Improving the car driving test: response to consultation

PDF, 1.31 MB, 24 pages

Detail of outcome

We received 3,953 responses to the consultation.

The government has decided to introduce the proposed changes to the driving test from 4 December 2017.

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Original consultation

Summary

Changes to the car driving test to make sure newly-qualified drivers are better prepared for driving on modern roads.

This consultation ran from
9:30am on 14 July 2016 to 11:45pm on 25 August 2016

Consultation description

This consultation seeks views on changes to improve the car driving test in Great Britain.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency wants to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on Great Britain’s roads by making sure newly-qualified drivers are better prepared for driving on modern roads.

To do this, the driving test needs to better assess the candidate’s ability to drive independently in modern driving conditions. The changes are to:

• increase the ‘independent driving’ part of the test from 10 to 20 minutes
• ask candidates to follow directions from a sat nav during the ‘independent driving’ part
• replace the ‘reverse around a corner’ and ‘turn in the road’ manoeuvres with more real-life scenarios, for example, driving into and reversing out of a parking bay
• ask 1 of the 2 vehicle safety questions (known as the ‘show me, tell me’ questions) while the candidate is driving, for example, asking them to use the rear heated screen

More information

• Driving test changes: plans revealed to improve road safety (news story)
• Driving test consultation: the proposed changes explained (blog post)
• Driving test consultation: interview with Lesley Young (blog post)
• New driving test trial: 2015 to 2016

Documents

Improving the car driving test

HTML

Improving the car driving test

PDF, 1.14 MB, 17 pages

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Published 14 July 2016
Last updated 15 April 2017 + show all updates

1. 15 April 2017

   Added the response to consultation report and outcome.

2. 14 July 2016

   First published.