Hundreds of people in Derbyshire who successfully passed their driving theory test will have to retake it as the coronavirus pandemic has caused massive delays to practical tests and the Government is refusing to extend the permitted deadline.

Toby Perkins, MP for Chesterfield, has raised his concerns to the Government and called for an extension to the permitted time between successfully passing the theory test and the practical test.

Toby said, “I have written to the Government and received a very disappointing response. Learner drivers are already going to have to pay more for additional lessons due to the long breaks in their learning and long waits for tests will increase these costs further. To now put them through further expense and stress by forcing them to re-pay for and retake a test they have already passed is unfair. There are already massive delays to booking driving tests and this will just create a further bottleneck in the system.”

Figures suggest that over 70,000 learner drivers could be forced to retake their theory tests due to an estimated wait of up to 8 months to book a practical driving test.

Toby added, “The vast majority the majority of learner drivers are people in their late teens and early twenties. This group have already had their education disrupted, their social lives curtailed, are twice as likely to have lost their job due to the pandemic and have the longest wait to receive the vaccine. This is another example of the Government failing to look after young people during the pandemic and I am urging them to reconsider. At the very least, anyone having to retake the test should be exempt from the usual fee.”

The Labour Party are backing calls for an extension and urging people to sign the petition at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/558160 to hopefully force a debate in Parliament.