asked the Secretary of State for Transport what is the current waiting time for a driving test at the Bradford, Keighley and Skipton test centres.

There are three driving test centres serving Bradford, and Skipton is an occasional centre served from Keighley. The information is as follows:

Test centre	Waiting time as at 29 March (latest available date) Weeks
Bradford (Brownroyd Hill road)	21
Bradford (Victoria road)	24
Bradford (Farfield street)	18
Keighley/Skipton	23

Waiting times for driving tests are for too high and the Department is recruiting and training new examiners as quickly as possible to reduce them to reasonable levels.

Table 1
Taxation Revenue and Public Road Costs, 1985–86—United Kingdom
Vehicle category	Vehicle numbers	Estimated Taxation Revenue					Costs attributed		Revenue to cost ratios
		VED	Fuel tax	Total	Car tax	Total (including car tax)		Revenue (excluding car tax) minus costs	Excluding car tax	Including car tax
	000s	£ million	£ million	£ million	£ million	£ million	£ million	£ million
Cars, light vans, taxis	19,308	1,975	5,075	7,050	760	7,810	2,145	4,905	3·3:1	3·6:1
Buses and coaches	73	5	*165	170	—	170	185	-15	0·9:1	0·9:1
Goods vehicles 152S Kg unladen:
Not over 3·5 tonnes GVW and non-plateable vehicles	119	15	30	45	—	45	15	30	2·7:1	2·7:1
Over 3·5 tonnes GVW	450	435	835	1,265	—	1,265	1,035	230	1·2:1	1·2:1
All vehicles	19,950	2,430	6,100	8,530	760	9,290	3,380	5,150	2·5:1	2·7:1
							245	Pedestrians
							30	Motor-cyclists
							3,655
* Fuel tax rebate on stage services (£115 million) not deducted.

asked the Secretary of State for Transport what was the average length of waiting time experienced by driving test applicants between the receipt of their applications and the date of their tests, in January for each of the following years (a) 1979, (b) 1980, (c) 1981, (d) 1982, (e) 1983, (f) 1984 and (g) 1985.

The figures were:

Mid-January	National (Weeks)	North Eastern Traffic Area (Leeds) (Weeks)
1979	22	24½
1980	26	21½
1981	19	16½
1982	11½	7
1983	9	3½
1984	10½	5½
1985	15½	18½

Examiners are being recruited to bring the waits down to acceptable levels.