Improving the car driving test

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