Bots and third parties will be banned from booking driving tests as part of a government shake-up to tackle a severe backlog of almost 670,000 learners booked in for a practical assessment.

The Department for Transport (DfT), which recently consulted on how to crack down on touts reselling test slots at inflated prices, said that only learner drivers themselves and not their instructors would be able to make bookings.

The government also said there would be a new limit on the number of changes a learner can make to a driving test booking – a maximum of two – including moves, swaps and location changes, before it must be cancelled and rebooked.

Learners will also be restricted to a limited number of test centres that are located close to the original booking.

“It is good to see steps being put in place to put a stop to those touting tests to frustrated learners,” said Steve Gooding, the director of driving organisation the RAC Foundation. “Candidates stuck in the queue should at least be reassured that they aren’t being elbowed aside by those simply seeking to make a quick buck.”

In October the government moved to make more driving test slots available to tackle the backlog, with figures from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency showing that 668,128 people had a practical test booked at the end of September. This is up on the 579,138 a year earlier.

Tests can be booked up to 24 weeks in advance, with new slots released on a rolling basis.

The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said in April that her department aimed to reduce the average waiting time for driving tests to seven weeks by the summer of 2026. The figure was 21.8 weeks at the end of September.

However, she has since told MPs on the transport select committee that the seven-week target will not be met by next summer. The DVSA has recruited 316 new examiners but Alexander said that had resulted in a net gain of only 40 because others have left. Driving examiners will be offered a “retention payment” of £5,000 from next year to try to keep them in the role.

The DfT also announced on Wednesday that it planned to call in military driving examiners to help tackle the backlog.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) will provide 36 defence driving examiners across England over the next year to enable up to 6,500 additional tests to be taken annually.

The MoD said that the civilian MoD personnel would help conduct driving tests one day a week for a year.

The new examiners will be sent to driving test centres with the most acute demand and may also carry out vocational tests for bus and lorry drivers, if needed.

“We inherited an enormous backlog of learners ready to ditch their L-plates who have been sadly forced to endure record waiting times for their tests,” Alexander said. “Every learner should have an equal and fair opportunity to take a test.”

Military driving examiners usually test service personnel, covering cars, fuel tankers and armoured carriers. Al Carns, the minister for the armed forces, said that seconding the examiners would not have an impact on military operations.

The government has started to see an increase in the number of tests being carried out. In September 168,644 tests were carried out – an increase of 14% or about 20,000 – over the same month last year.

However, September’s pass rate was 49.9%, which was down from 50.7% in August and represented a six-month low.