Driving examiners "bullied" to inflate test pass rates, PCS tells MPs

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union today reveals driving examiners are being “bullied” by managers to inflate driving test pass rates.

Giving evidence at today’s House of Commons Transport Select Committee, the union also says examiners are being encouraged to scope out which test routes have higher pass rates.

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “Our evidence shows the driving test system is broken and, instead of being fixed by managers, is being made worse.

“Our driving examiner members work really hard to keep our roads safe by rigorously testing learner drivers. Although we want to see the backlog reduced, safety, not the backlog, must be the priority.

“We want to see an increase in pay and a proper investment into the long-term solutions to ensure DVSA can successfully continue in its role in setting road safety standards and regulating driving tests.”

Evidence to the committee reads: “PCS has received a number of contacts from driving examiners in the organisation who have felt pressured and bullied by managers to increase test pass rates.

“Additionally, driving examiner line managers have also been asked to start completing new documentation which analyses performance based on examiners with low pass rates and routes with low pass rates.”

The union also calls out the practice of third parties block booking driving tests to make a profit, submitting evidence to say: “When PCS called into question the ethics of third party organisations being able to book repeated tests on the system, the answers were evasive, with us being told ‘It’s just not that easy’.

“We have been led to believe from ‘off the record’ conversations with senior management in DVSA that repealing the third party buying and selling of tests is difficult as this was brought in without the correct legislative process being undertaken, and therefore admission of the problem would reveal this significant error.

“The impact of allowing the continuation of third-party organisations being able to book up multiple tests to then sell them on at a profit means an ever-continuing cycle of delays for those learners awaiting driving tests.”

ends

You can read PCS’s evidence to the committee here.