02/05/2026
GOV.UK
Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency
Hello,
From 12 May 2026, it will be against the law for anyone other than the learner driver to book, change, swap or cancel their own car driving test.
There are some things you need to do for any bookings you have made with a test date from 12 May 2026.
1. Give your pupil their booking reference number
You must give your pupils their booking reference numbers, as this is their personal data. Your pupil will need this to manage their test from 12 May 2026.
Remind them to keep it safe.
Keeping booking reference numbers
From 12 May 2026, you may keep booking reference numbers where they are part of financial or audit records (including refunds) held inside the service. The service holds records for the last 2 years.
You must not keep or use driving test booking reference numbers for booking or managing tests.
2. Update contact details on bookings
There are currently 2 car driving test bookings from 12 May 2026 with your email address of [email protected] stored where the learner’s email address should be.
From 12 May 2026, you will no longer have a lawful purpose for receiving messages intended for learner drivers.
So we’re asking you to help make sure your pupils’ email addresses are on their bookings as they should always have been. This means information about their booking is only sent to them.
You or your pupils need to change the email address on these bookings to the pupil’s email address before 12 May 2026.
If you ask your pupils to do it, you need to explain to them that:
changing the email address will not use one of their 2 allowed changes
they can still do this even if they have already used both changes
How your pupil can update their email address
They need to do this before 12 May 2026:
Go to www.gov.uk/check-driving-test.
Sign in with their driving licence number and booking reference number (which you need to give them).
On the ‘View booking’ page, select Change next to ‘Candidate details’.
Enter their own address, email address and telephone number.
Update the booking to save the change.
3. Add your pupil’s contact details to any further bookings you make
Add your pupil’s email address and phone number when you make any further bookings while you still have access. This will mean they do not have to change the email address or telephone number later.
In the booking service, the field is called ‘Candidate’s email’. It’s a mandatory field and should always be used for the learner’s email address.
What happens from 12 May 2026
From 12 May 2026, it will be against the law for anyone other than the learner to book, change, swap or cancel a car driving test.
The service to book and manage driving tests for your pupils will close at 6pm on 11 May 2026. All transactions must be completed by then.
Find out more about the new booking rules.
Thank you.
Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency
Find out how we collect, use and store your personal information at www.gov.uk/dvsa/privacy.
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