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DVSA's clapped-out booking system gets bot slapped as new boss rides in. 18-year-old platform crumbles under 94M daily requests while resellers flog £62 tests for £500. The UK's Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has appointed a new chief exec to tackle spiraling waits for practical driving tests with bots overrunning its aging booking system. Beverley Warmington will join the agency on January 5. "I have every confidence she will grip the driving test backlog and robustly oversee the reforms needed to ensure learners can get on the road when they are truly ready and safe to do so," said roads and buses minister Simon Lightwood. Most practical driving test slots at DVSA centers are snapped up immediately after release – 24 weeks in advance. The National Audit Office (NAO) found that 198 (70 percent) of the agency's 240 permanent test centers reported a 24-week wait in September. The average wait is 22 weeks, with DVSA not expecting to meet a seven-week target until November 2027. Much of the demand comes from two types of paid bot services. Cancellation checkers alert candidates to newly released slots, sometimes booking on their behalf. Resellers tell candidates to book any nationwide slot, then charge them to swap it for a bot-booked test at their preferred location and date. A DVSA survey of 21,656 candidates found 31 percent of candidates used third-party resellers, with some paying up to £500 versus the £62 official weekday fee. The NAO said DVSA has struggled to tackle bots due to technical issues and staffing shortages. Its booking system is almost 18 years old and has what the report called "significant security and operational limitations," with high levels of demand making it unstable at peak times. It handled 50 million web requests a day through bot protection in September 2025, up from around 10 million a day in September 2024, with one day seeing more than 94 million requests. When the DVSA fights back, the bots often win. "Third parties develop bots at pace, quickly overcoming any new protection measures," the NAO said. "For example, DVSA's introduction of a key anti-bot measure was neutralized by bot developers within one day." The agency has no dedicated in-house staff working to defend it against bots, relying instead on existing staff developing expertise and support from suppliers. DVSA said it has automated some bot protection work and is continuing to look for ways to protect itself better. Its webpages on GOV.UK include specific instructions on what to do if specific error messages appear during booking. As well as the impact on candidates, bot bookings hamper DVSA's ability to establish actual demand for tests, particularly by area given bookings made purely to swap for other ones. Maps in the report show bookings for DVSA's Inverness center made from addresses in southern England and bookings for Launceston in Cornwall made from northern Scotland, although it says there may be reasons in some cases, including students living away from home. The agency allows instructors and businesses to book then swap tests between candidates they are teaching, with 327,000 swapped in 2024 (17 percent of the total). This year, DVSA closed 880 business accounts used for excessive booking and swapping, and limited swaps per driver from 30 to 10. From spring 2026, only candidates can book practical tests, with two changes to a booking allowed and even then only to a test center near the original booking. Overall, the NAO saw low examiner numbers as the main issue. "We recommend that DVSA reviews what is driving the increased demand for tests and looks at what is needed to scale up the examiner workforce for increased test delivery," said report director Lee Summerfield. Slot-booking bots have just made things worse.