Driving exams are resuming on Monday after a break of more than two months imposed under the coronavirus restrictions.

Driving standards agency CBR has had to postpone 300,000 practical exams since March 16. Candidates who were booked in for their test during that time are being given priority as the agency starts to clear the backlog.

Lessons restarted on May 11 in the first stage of new measures to relax the ‘intelligent lockdown’, while the first theory tests were taken on May 13.

The 1.5 metre distance rule will not be applied in the car as examiners need to be able to intervene during the test. An earlier suggestion to use a sheet of foil between the two front seats was dismissed for the same reason.

‘We have given a lot of thought to how we can do this responsibly,’ CBR director Alexander Pechtold told Radio 1.

‘In the end we decided that we think it’s responsible if people can state clearly that they are not sick and are abiding by all the other hygiene measures. That should be enough.’