London, December 06, 2025
Driving-test touts in the UK are paying driving instructors up to £250 per slot to bulk-book tests and resell them at inflated prices amid a backlog of 700,000 learners, exploiting the system’s high demand and limited supply. This ongoing black market activity threatens the fairness and integrity of the licensing process nationwide.
Black Market Operation and Financial Incentives
Driving-test touts operate by offering instructors between £100 and £250 for each driving test slot they book in advance, often under real or fake learner identities. These slots are then sold on secondary markets for prices reaching £500 or more—significantly above the £62 official fee—to desperate learners seeking to avoid wait times commonly stretching to 20–24 weeks.
Instructors, some acting as intermediaries rather than educators, leverage privileged access to the DVSA booking system to reserve large blocks of test appointments. These slots are held until buyers pay hefty premiums to touts advertising through social media, classified platforms, and messaging apps. Promises of “fast-track” or “guaranteed” tests circulate widely, with some touts even implying corrupt practices to secure passes.
Risks and Consequences
Learners face multiple risks, including financial scams where fees are paid for non-existent bookings and potential legal repercussions if fraudulent booking methods are used. There is also fear of corruption, with some tout packages suggesting examiner misconduct to guarantee success.
Instructors involved breach DVSA rules and ethical standards, risking the loss of their teaching licenses and banned access to official booking systems. Criminal charges for fraud or conspiracy also loom for those facilitating or profiting from the scheme.
The system itself suffers from undermined public trust and skewed access. Genuine learners lose fair opportunity as slots are monopolized for profit, deepening existing inefficiencies and inequalities in test availability.
Official Awareness and Enforcement Challenges
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), alongside law enforcement, have acknowledged the problem but face difficulties combatting what is largely an online, decentralized black market. Recent reforms to the driving test process, set to be permanent from November 24, 2025, focus on test realism and flow improvements but do not address booking abuses.
Staff shortages and heightened examiner recruitment efforts further strain the system, inadvertently increasing vulnerabilities exploited by touts and unethical instructors.
Systemic Underlying Issues
This scandal exposes broader systemic deficits: chronic underfunding of DVSA resources, persistent long waiting lists, and an instructor shortage that together foster a lucrative environment for black-market dealings. The asymmetry between demand and supply creates market distortions, inviting unethical practices that erode confidence in driver licensing.
Advice for Learners
To safeguard against exploitation, learners are urged to exclusively book tests through the official DVSA website and reject any third-party offers promising expedited or guaranteed test appointments for excessive fees. Suspicious activities, touts, or instructors soliciting kickbacks should be reported to the DVSA and Action Fraud to aid enforcement efforts.
Without enhanced oversight, increased testing capacity, and more rigorous enforcement, this illicit market is poised to persist, complicating an already pressurized system and risking further erosion of public trust in driver qualification standards.