Driving instructors and learners in north-east England and Cumbria say too many tests are being cancelled just days, or even hours, before they are due to take place, leaving some people stranded without the licence they need for work. Katie Smith, who teaches in Northumberland, says several of her clients have been caught up in the disruption and is calling on the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency to recruit more examiners and cut the waiting list.
Smith said the cancellations hit hardest in rural places such as Allendale and Alston, where public transport is limited and a driving licence is often the difference between getting to work and missing it. “These are often young people in very rural areas who can barely afford driving lessons and desperately need a licence to work, it just has a massive impact,” she said. “I've got kids who do pot washing to pay for lessons, then their tests are postponed and they have to find more money because they can't just not drive for a month or two.”
One of the learners affected was Ridley Craig, who had a test booked for 6 May and was told the day before that it had been cancelled. Craig, who works at two farms, said he depends on a licence to get between different jobs. “We have two family farms and I work for someone else doing his sheep work, so I have to move between different places for work,” he said. “I was pretty upset and disappointed to be honest because I was excited to get passed and get on the road.” He also said a couple of his friends had their tests cancelled only after they arrived at the driving test centre, which he described as “not good enough.”
The problem has also reached learners in Cumbria. Linzi Bowden, from Workington, said her test scheduled for 18 December 2025 was cancelled two days before it was due to take place, after she had already waited five months for a place and taken lessons for more than a year. For learners in rural areas, those delays can mean more travel costs, more lost time and, in some cases, more pressure to keep paying for lessons while work opportunities hang in the balance.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency said occasions when it had to cancel tests were rare and that it always rebooked the learner's test for the next available appointment. But Smith said the promise of a rebooking does little to soften the blow for people whose jobs depend on getting on the road quickly. For Craig, the cancellation meant a missed step toward work that spans several places, and for Smith's students it meant another round of waiting, paying and hoping the next date actually holds.
