Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency
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New arrangements for out-of-hours testing
* DSA to tailor car test service according to demand
The Driving Standards Agency is to tailor the way out-of-hours tests are offered.
A new, flexible approach means that from 17 May, appointments for the practical car test outside normal hours will be offered where overall demand is high at individual test centres but not at those where it isn't.
Appointments classed as out-of-hours are those offered at the weekend and, during the summer, weekday early mornings and evenings.
DSA Chief Executive, Rosemary Thew, said: "These changes will ensure that our examiners' time is focused on where it is needed most and that we make the best use of our resources.
"We will keep the situation under constant review and offer testing outside normal hours to provide extra capacity where it is needed."
For further information contact:
Miranda Rose, Press Office
Manager
0115 936 6138
miranda.rose@dsa.gsi.gov.uk
Notes to Editors:
* Out-of-hours testing will be available at centres where waiting
times exceed eight weeks for car tests.
* The Driving
Standards Agency (DSA) is an executive agency * of the Department
for Transport.
* The DSA's vision is "Safe Driving
for Life" with an overall mission to contribute towards a
Government target of achieving a 40% reduction in riders and
drivers killed or seriously injured in road accidents, in the age
group up to 24 years, by 2010.
* Current information on road
casualties is available from the Department for Transport website:
http://www.dft.gov.uk
* The Agency's aim is to promote road safety through
setting standards for drivers, riders and trainers, testing
drivers and riders fairly and efficiently, maintaining the
registers of Approved Driving Instructors; Large Goods Vehicle
Instructors; Fleet Trainers; Driving Instructor Trainers and Post
Test Motorcycle Trainers; supervising Compulsory Basic Training
(CBT) for learner motorcyclists; and driver education and the
provision of learning resources.
* DSA is a trading fund *
with an expected turnover of around £199 million for the year
2008/9, fully funded by fee income and revenue from its
activities.
* DSA employs over 2,700 staff, of which some
2,000 are driving examiners based at over 400 test centres across
mainland Great Britain. In 2007/2008 the Agency conducted 1.8
million practical tests for car drivers, over 95,000 vocational
tests and 94,000 motorcycle rider tests. A total of 1.7 million
theory tests were carried out at 158 centres. At the end of the
year there were around 43,600 people on the Register of Approved
Driving Instructors.
* DSA was one of the first Government
Agencies to introduce an online booking service. Candidates can
book and manage their theory and practical test appointments on
line at http://www.direct.gov.uk/drivingtest
* Executive agency:
An executive agency is semi-detached from
its parent department and manages its own budget with freedom from
ad hoc, day to day intervention and much of central,
government-wide regulation. They are run under the organisation
and direction of a Chief Executive recruited through open
competition. An executive agency has accountability for the
performance of specific operational tasks as a corporate unit,
including focused performance targets set by the parent department
and personal accountability of the chief executive for performance.
* Trading Fund:
A trading fund is a means of financing
trading activities
undertaken by Government that would
previously have been financed
by annual appropriation from
Parliament. A trading fund permits the establishment of a
self-accounting unit that remains under the control and management
of Ministers and accountable to Parliament through Ministers, but
has greater freedom to manage its financial affairs. Effectively
that means the trading fund body can use its income to settle its
liabilities and retain year-end cash balances.
Establishing
the trading fund does not alter the Agency's constitutional
position and it remains part of the Department for Transport.
