Driving examiner jobs in 2026: salary, requirements and how to apply
DVSA is recruiting for driving examiner jobs right now. The current advert pays £32,027 a year, DVSA adds £9,278 a year to your Civil Service pension, and applications for the current list of test centres close on 18 October 2026. You need to be 23 or over, to have held a full manual licence for 3 years and to have no more than 3 penalty points. You don't need any background in driver training.
Below: what the job involves, how the 4-stage selection works, why DVSA keeps advertising, and how examiner pay compares with working as a self-employed driving instructor (ADI), the other career most people reading this are weighing up.
Orbit makes software for driving instructors, so we have an interest in the ADI side. The examiner facts here come from DVSA's advert, its careers page, its annual report and Despatch blog, and the National Audit Office.
What a driving examiner does
An examiner's day is driving tests. Each car test takes about 57 minutes, and full-time examiners are expected to carry out 7 a day, according to the October 2026 advert on Civil Service Jobs. On each one you:
- give clear directions and put a nervous candidate at ease
- watch the driving, the surroundings and the other traffic at the same time
- record what you see on a digital tablet
- decide whether the candidate meets the standard, then explain the result, including the fails
Between tests you plan the day with colleagues, agree alternative routes when needed and do light admin. The job is based at a DVSA test centre with no hybrid working, and you can be asked to test at any centre in your cluster. DVSA's careers page says part-time working is available once you have finished training.
It has a hard edge. The National Audit Office counted 426 reported assaults on examiners in 2024-25, most of them verbal. With 7 tests a day and around half of learners failing at the first attempt (per DVSA's annual report), telling someone they have failed is part of most working days.
Driving examiner salary in 2026
| What you get | DVSA driving examiner (advert closing 18 October 2026) |
|---|---|
| Salary | £32,027 a year |
| Employer pension contribution | £9,278 a year (28.97% of salary) into the Civil Service defined benefit scheme |
| Annual leave | 25 days, rising by 1 day a year to 30, plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King's birthday |
| Hours | 37 a week, worked over a 7-day rota |
| Weekends | One weekend day a month, with a weekday off in its place |
| Grade | Executive officer (per the NAO) |
Spread over 52 weeks of 37 hours, £32,027 is about £16.65 an hour, with holidays paid.
Two extras have topped that up recently. DVSA reintroduced an additional test award incentive scheme for examiners in June 2025, and its annual report for 2025-26 shows average performance pay across the agency rising sharply as a result. The same report calls these incentive payments time-limited. Separately, examiners who met the criteria were due a one-off £5,000 payment aimed at cutting attrition, paid in two instalments in March and September 2026. A new recruit should not count on either.
DVSA is open about pay being the weak point. The NAO reports that DVSA attributes its high examiner turnover to "uncompetitive pay and safety concerns", and that satisfaction with the benefits package among DVSA's executive officer grade (about 60% of whom are examiners) fell by 9% on 2023.
Requirements and the recruitment process
Who can apply
From the advert and DVSA's careers page:
- Age: 23 or over
- Licence: a full manual UK or EU driving licence, held continuously for the last 3 years
- Penalty points: no more than 3 when you apply
- Right to work: DVSA cannot sponsor Skilled Worker visas
- Checks: an enhanced DBS check (examining is part of the notifiable occupation scheme), baseline security checks and, for external applicants, a check of your public social media
An automatic-only licence rules you out, because the licence must be manual and the driving assessment is in a manual car.
The 4 stages
You have to pass each stage to reach the next. Dates are from the advert closing 18 October 2026.
- Application form on Civil Service Jobs. There is a CV box, but it isn't scored.
- Two online assessments, done in your own time: a customer service exercise, and an observation and reporting exercise that tests whether you notice and recall details accurately. The scores are combined. Sift results are expected by 19 November 2026.
- Online interview on Microsoft Teams, scored on 3 behaviours (Communicating and Influencing, Managing a Quality Service, Making Effective Decisions) plus Civil Service strengths. Interviews run from 30 November to 22 December 2026.
- Driving assessment, about 45 minutes in a manual car DVSA provides: an eyesight check, one reverse manoeuvre, about 20 minutes of independent driving and about 5 minutes of talk-through driving. These start in January 2027.
DVSA's careers page says the drive is judged to "a standard that goes beyond basic driving ability", with hazards anticipated early and smooth, well-planned driving throughout.
Successful candidates go on a success list for their cluster and offers are made in merit order. Where DVSA can't make an immediate offer, it holds a 12-month reserve list. If you turn down an offer in your preferred cluster, your application is withdrawn.
Training
Training lasts 6 weeks, full time, Monday to Friday. Week 1 is at your local test centre; weeks 2 to 6 are at a regional training centre, with accommodation and expenses covered by DVSA. External candidates who don't pass the training lose the job.
For a sense of the timeline, a new examiner writing on DVSA's Despatch blog in 2021 applied in February and took up the post at the end of June. The current advert also says the process "can take several months".
Where DVSA has driving examiner jobs now, and why
As of 11 October 2026, DVSA's careers page lists these test centres, with applications open until 18 October:
| Aberdeen | Chertsey | Leeds | Rugby |
| Ashford (Middlesex) | Coventry | Leighton Buzzard | Slough |
| Atherton | Crewe | Luton | St Helens |
| Banbury | Edinburgh | Middlesbrough | Stoke (Cobridge) |
| Bolton | Gloucester | Mitcham | Tolworth (London) |
| Cambridge | Hartlepool | Morden | Warrington |
| Cheetham Hill | High Wycombe | Northallerton | Warwick |
| Cheltenham | Isleworth | Oxford (Cowley) | Widnes |
DVSA asks you to apply only if you live near one of these centres, and says it will recruit in further locations from 19 October. If yours isn't listed, sign up to DVSA's email alerts.
The reason it keeps advertising is the car test backlog. DVSA's 2025-26 annual report records:
- 2.17 million car tests delivered in the year, up from 1.96 million the year before
- a car test waiting time of 21.5 weeks against a 7-week target, with no date set for meeting that target
- an estimated 450,000 to 500,000 extra tests needed over the next 18 months to bring waits back to target
- around 1,604 full-time equivalent car examiners in March 2026, up 7% on a year earlier and the highest since 2018, a net gain of about 188 over the year
By August 2026 DVSA had 1,605 full-time equivalent examiners able to test, 160 more than a year earlier and its highest capacity since November 2017, according to a Despatch update in September 2026.
Recruitment has been hard going. The NAO found that DVSA ran 19 recruitment campaigns between February 2021 and September 2025. Of the 15 that produced qualified examiners, all but one filled fewer than half their posts, and one filled only 12%. 230 examiners left in 2024-25, an attrition rate of 14%, double the 7.1% for the civil service as a whole. DVSA has particular trouble recruiting in London and the South East.
For applicants, that means steady demand, not a lower bar: you still have to pass the same assessment and training. For the learner side of the backlog, see our guide to driving test waiting times in 2026, and for what it costs instructors, what the test backlog costs ADIs.
Examiner vs driving instructor: pay, hours and freedom
People researching driving examiner jobs are often also looking at becoming an ADI. They are very different jobs: one is a salaried civil service post, the other is usually self-employment.
| Driving examiner | Self-employed ADI | |
|---|---|---|
| Pay | £32,027 salary | You set your price. £36 to £40 an hour is the most common, charged by 50.3% of ADIs |
| Pension | £9,278 a year from DVSA | Only what you pay in yourself |
| Holidays | 34 paid days in year one | Unpaid |
| Hours | 37 a week on a 7-day rota (part-time possible after training) | Your choice. 56.6% of ADIs work 25 hours or more a week |
| Business costs | None | Car, fuel, insurance, marketing |
| Income risk | Fixed salary | Cancellations and quiet spells. 45.4% of ADIs have room for new pupils |
| Getting in | Paid while you train | Pass ADI Parts 1, 2 and 3, mostly at your own cost |
ADI figures are from DVSA's Working as a driving instructor survey of 3,448 ADIs in October 2025.
What an ADI needs to earn to match an examiner
The examiner package is worth £41,305 a year before tax: £32,027 salary plus £9,278 of pension. To match that as profit, before putting money into a pension of your own, here is the rough maths for an ADI:
| Step | Figure |
|---|---|
| Profit needed (salary plus pension) | £41,305 |
| Plus running costs (the worked example in our earnings guide; yours will differ) | £15,000 |
| Lesson income needed | £56,305 |
| At £38 an hour | 1,482 paid hours |
| Over 46 working weeks | about 32 paid hours a week |
Six weeks off is close to an examiner's 34 days of leave, so the comparison is roughly like for like. Tax isn't identical: employees pay Class 1 National Insurance at 8% in the main band, while self-employed ADIs pay Class 4 at 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270. A defined benefit pension also isn't the same as cash in hand.
So a full-time ADI at the going rate with a full diary can out-earn an examiner, and the NAO says as much: instructors "have the potential to earn more than examiners do", though without the civil service pension. In the DVSA survey, 37.3% of ADIs work 25 to 34 hours a week and 19.3% work 35 or more, and those are working hours, not only paid lessons. A part-timer, or anyone with a patchy diary, will not match an examiner, and nobody pays an ADI for a week off sick. Our guide to how much driving instructors earn works through the costs line by line, and you can put your own rate, hours and costs into the driving instructor earnings calculator to see take-home pay after tax.
Hours and freedom
An examiner works DVSA's rota at DVSA's test centres, tests whoever is booked in and doesn't set the price of anything. An ADI chooses their pupils, area, prices and days off, and carries the risk that comes with that. In the same DVSA survey, 91.4% of ADIs agreed the job gives them a sense of personal accomplishment, and 67.2% said they have a good work-life balance. For a plain account of the instructor side, read what it's like being a driving instructor.
Can ADIs become examiners?
Yes. DVSA's advert says you don't need a background in driver training or a driving-related job, so ADIs go through the same 4 stages as everyone else. The National Careers Service lists examining as a route for highly experienced instructors.
An ADI starts with obvious advantages: you know the test, the marking and the routes around your centre, and you spend your working day spotting faults. The licence rules still apply, so you need a manual licence held for 3 years and no more than 3 points, and you still have to pass the driving assessment, which tests your own driving.
If you plan to keep some private pupils alongside examining, raise it with the vacancy holder (the contact is on the advert) before you accept an offer. Getting that answer in writing early beats finding out after training.
How to apply
- Check the location list on DVSA's driving examiner careers page. If your nearest centre isn't on it, sign up for the email alerts and watch for the next locations from 19 October.
- Apply on Civil Service Jobs before the closing date, 18 October 2026 for the current advert. Pick your cluster carefully, because declining an offer there withdraws your application.
- Prepare examples for the 3 behaviours (Communicating and Influencing, Managing a Quality Service, Making Effective Decisions) before the interview stage.
- Get your driving checked. If you haven't had feedback on your driving in years, a session with an ADI before the assessment is cheap insurance.
- Plan for 6 weeks of full-time training, weeks 2 to 6 of it at a regional centre away from home.
If teaching appeals more than testing, our guide to becoming a driving instructor in 2026 and the become an instructor hub cover the Part 1 to 3 route, and Orbit's diary, booking and payment tools are free for instructors once you qualify.
Sources
- DfT/DVSA, Driving Examiner advert on Civil Service Jobs, closing 18 October 2026: salary, pension, leave, hours, requirements, selection stages and dates, training. Checked 11 October 2026.
- DVSA, Driving examiner roles at DVSA, Civil Service Careers: current locations, requirements, driving assessment content, training. Checked 11 October 2026.
- DVSA, Annual report and accounts 2025 to 2026: tests delivered, waiting time, examiner numbers, incentive scheme.
- DVSA, Driving test booking changes: 3 months on, September 2026: examiner capacity in August 2026.
- National Audit Office, Investigation into car driving test waiting times, December 2025: recruitment campaigns, attrition, pay, assaults, one-off payment, ADI earning potential.
- DVSA, Working as a driving instructor survey: 2025 results: ADI prices, hours, availability and job satisfaction.
- DVSA, Car driving examiners: what's the role like?, November 2021.
- GOV.UK, National Insurance rates and categories and Self-employed National Insurance rates, 2026-27.
- Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.