Pass rates on driving tests, how the DVSA uses them for quality control

It’s a rumour as old as the hills, “Driving Test Examiners have to pass & fail a certain number of people in order to control the number of people on the roads”

Now I’ve never, ever seen evidence of that in any official capacity at all as a driving instructor

I’ve also, over 21years now, seen quite a few changes to the testing process, not to mention covid and all the disruption that that caused, and I’ve never seen the average pass rate for the country change more than 1 or 2 percentage points

In my previous work as a Design Engineer / Project Manager in the automotive industry, I know for a fact, that you can’t change any aspect of a product’s manufacture without seeing a change in it’s operating statistics, not even getting the same product from a different supplier – even that sort of thing changes performance (and that’s why supplying parts into the automotive industry involves so much testing and approving)

So this idea that you can take away one of the manoeuvres for example, and go down to just one reverse exercise rather than two, and not see a change in the pass rates doesn’t sit well with me at all, the engineer within me wants to say that it’s impossible!

When the DVSA made that particular change, they were keen to tell us in their communications that the pass rates remained the same in spite of the change. They say that they use that measurement as a way of gauging whether they have done something that makes the test easier or harder

They’ve also, over the years, explained that they use it as a way of making sure driving examiners are consistently marking the tests. If you take a fictitious example of an examiner being racist to demonstrate the point, pass rates of 90% for white people and 10% for black people would highlight this to management so that they could deal with it as they saw appropriate

So pass rates remaining the same help the DVSA to ensure that learner drivers are receiving the same level of scrutiny during their driving test. They collect and analyse data for test centres, test routes, junctions, manoeuvres, individual examiners and individual instructors and compare it to other performance indicators at both local and national levels

A local driving test centre manager once told a story of being involved in a car crash on a day off one day and then having to work hard on their return to work to avoid being too harsh on the learners taking their tests. They could see clearly that this was happening when compared to other examiners that were working at the time

These are good things of course, we want consistency in marking and we don’t want outside influences, attitudes or experiences pushing results either way

Individual driving test centres have differing pass rates when compared to national level for a lot of reasons, which are mainly geographic and social

For example, a quick Google search this afternoon shows that the test centre with the lowest pass rate in the country at the moment is Wolverhampton at around 33%

Wolverhampton is a busy city, with plenty of complex junctions and heavy traffic but it’s also an area with social needs. Unemployment is high, there are a lot of people living on benefits and money is tight. These things mean that people will have limited means to invest in professional driving lessons in comparison to other areas we could look at. There is also the question of immigration, with previous experiences, language, cultural issues affecting people’s performance in lessons as well as the tests

 

On the other side of the coin, the Isles of Scilly is where you have the best chance of passing your driving test, at around 88%

The two environments are very, very different!

All of this obviously needs to be offset against the standard required to pass a driving test

To boil it down, I’d describe that as being able to demonstrate that you can drive, reasonably smoothly and without assistance or advice, for 35-40 minutes around a test route containing a mixed variety of road and traffic conditions, showing good judgement in your interactions with other road users and a complete knowledge of the Highway Code

The key points there are the words “without assistance or advice” and “a complete knowledge of the Highway Code”

If somebody demonstrates these things, then they HAVE to pass a driving test and if they don’t, they MUST fail it, it’s as simple as that

And that means that to increase Wolverhampton’s pass rate to meet national averages, you’d have to introduce lenient marking, and you’d have to be harsh in the Isles of Scilly – neither are fair on others taking the test in other parts of the country and we must never compromise the UK’s road safety record

So, the final question remaining is this “if you take everyone to test, trained to the extent that they can easily meet the requirements of the test, is it possible that 100% of the people taking a driving test could pass it?”

My answer to that is no. Firstly, the DVSA measures instructor pass rates over a 12mth period, because we can very easily have good weeks (100% pass rates) and bad weeks (0% pass rates) and secondly, if I take 50 customers to test over that 12mth period, statistically, 20% of those are living with educational needs and mental health problems and it seems fair to say that those people will always find it harder to pass a test (the only way to avoid that is to discriminate and refuse to teach such people). Finally of course, anyone can simply make a mistake

But in principle, it is an objective for anyone presenting anyone for a driving test to make sure that that person is properly prepared and is capable of passing it and the best thing that a learner driver can do is to get a Highway Code and read it repeatedly until they’re almost quoting it word for word if they are asked to, and then to invest in plenty of training involving independent driving, focussing on having conversations with their instructor about what might change about the driving plan in different circumstances (such as if it’s raining)

Nick Heath Driver Training helps people of all levels and abilities with their driving. Established in 2005 and based on the South Cheshire / North Staffordshire border in the UK, I can help you to obtain a licence, become a driving instructor, regain your driving confidence or reduce your road risk for work purposes. I am a regular contributor to local and national radio when driving items come up in the news and am willing to contribute to the wider driver training conversation

Anyone wanting more information should call 0800 8 20 2038

Social media & how it’s affected people learning to drive

It’s human nature to try & find the easiest way around any particular task & in this day & age, that has never been more true

In modern times, learner drivers have told me in the car that they “can’t” sit down & watch a film, they don’t read books because it takes too much effort & they find learning anything tiring

The reasons for this are very well researched & understood

Firstly, social media has created an environment which gives the illusion that the world can be explained in 30 seconds, detail is unnecessary & can easily be skipped

Secondly, our increased understanding of learning difficulties means that we’re more tolerant than we have been in the past if people don’t learn & there are no real consequences to not actively working around your limitations

That is… until you learn to drive!

A failed driving test hurts & some people have to give up learning to drive completely as a result of being able to pass a theory test – mental fitness is an important aspect of driving

Many years ago, I read an interview with a man who retired after being a Driving Instructor for 50 years. He was asked the question “you’ll have seen a lot of changes over the course of your career, have all of those changes been positive?” He replied “no, most of the changes have been positive, but the introduction of the multiple choice theory test (which was 1996) was a backwards step. In the past, an examiner asked verbal questions at the end of the test & where a pupil didn’t give enough detail in the answer, they would prompt for more information in order to satisfy themselves as to the pupil’s level of knowledge, now we have pupil’s guessing the correct answer from a choice of two having dismissed another two answers that are frankly quite stupid & getting through”

I wonder what that man thinks of today’s learner experience where most learner drivers are open & honest in that they don’t possess a copy of the Highway Code & if they do, they have never made an effort to read it? This is what they tell me in the car, even in cases where parents have bought them a copy of the book for their birthday, which is rare

I also wonder what he would make of learner drivers looking at a 15 second video on an entertainment website & then saying that they know the subject enough to face a test of their knowledge?

And I wonder how he feels when he sees things on the road like people using left hand lanes to turn right on roundabouts without being directed to do so by road markings?

A few years ago, a “driving school” became very prominent on social media giving out bad advice on how to drive on the driving test in the form of a series of clips of “real life” recordings of “real DVSA Examiners marking failed driving tests”

Firstly, this in itself is against the rules of the DVSA which don’t even allow dash cams to record the voices of examiners, never mind permit mounted cameras to clearly film the occupants of the car from various directions. Where an Examiner has reason to think that they’re being recorded, they will activate their own body cameras & terminate the test

Secondly, a lot of the incidents that were discussed weren’t serious faults. We had one for example, where a serious fault was marked for not applying the handbrake at a zebra crossing whilst people crossed. Any experienced ADI will tell you that with no loss of control, that’s a driver fault at most

We also had a serious fault marked for a pupil who stopped at a zebra crossing as people walked towards it, only for them to apparently change their mind about crossing the road, turn & walk away. On a test, this would not attract a fault at all (I’ve had a strong test pass this week actually, in which a similar incident occurred, no fault associated with that at all)

Finally, we saw an examiner give praise at the end of a test for dropping to 2^nd gear for all of the 20mph speed limited zones that they’d driven through. I don’t think they’d comment on that sort of thing at all! If anything, if it was demonstrated a few times on the test, I think they’d mark a driver fault for not using 3^rd & being more considerate to the environment

The last time I saw that driving school come up on my news feed, it was a load of pictures of a lady (recognisable from the examiner videos) walking on a beach wearing a bikini – now what’s the story there?! Was this ever a qualified ADI? The page is owned by a man according to the home page, why is this lady the only “instructor” to regularly feature on it?

Again, DVSA rules on sexual activity & sharing of sexually suggestive content between ADI’s & under 18’s are very clear & strong, & quite rightly so. I’m sure they don’t like what they see that school doing

Another thing I saw recently was over the winter where a “Driving Instructor” criticised people for moving around potholes, saying that there was no need to do that, you’d fail your test for it & you won’t damage your car if you “just glide over the pothole”

Any experienced driver will tell you, car’s don’t simply glide over potholes!

What cars do is drop into the pothole & smash their wheels into the opposite edge of the pothole with violence & momentum carried by weight over 1000kg, often rupturing tyres but sometimes cracking alloy wheels or damaging suspension or steering systems

Why on earth would a driving examiner have a problem with you looking ahead, seeing the pothole & adjusting your road position to avoid potentially damaging your car?

My advice to anyone wanting to learn to drive is not to try & shortcut it. The Highway Code is a simple book, costing less than a fiver & split into bite sized chunks of just a few sentences for each rule. It’s almost like looking at a paper version of Twitter when there’s a common subject. My advice is to read that book. Don’t take any advice from anyone who says that they’ve seen something on social media at all if it’s advising you on what to do & when because of the sheer volume of poor quality information there. Do make use of apps to practice for your theory test but instead of just being happy or unhappy with a passed or failed mock test, note the things you got wrong & look them up in your Highway Code

With a bit of luck, we’ll improve the pass rates for theory again (which were once in the 90% bracket & have dropped massively in the last 15yrs or so since smart phones took over the market) & also help some of you to pass your practical tests too (because if you demonstrate any lack of understanding of the Highway Code on that, it’s pretty much an automatic serious fault)

You might even train your brain to concentrate on a task long enough to watch a film or two too!

For more information & a wider look at this subject, I recommend reading “Stolen Focus” by Johan Hari

 Nick Heath Driver Training helps people of all levels and abilities with their driving. Established in 2005 and based on the South Cheshire / North Staffordshire border in the UK, I can help you to obtain a licence, become a driving instructor, regain your driving confidence or reduce your road risk for work purposes. I am a regular contributor to local and national radio when driving items come up in the news and am willing to contribute to the wider driver training conversation

Anyone wanting more information should call 0800 8 20 2038

Why I sponsor community events...

 This blog is going live on Saturday, 11^th July, a day when, for once, I’m not working on a Saturday!

The reason for that is that today is the day of Alsager Music Festival, or to put it more exactly, today is the first day of what has grown to be a two day festival, held in Alsager’s Milton Park on the Saturday and in the beer gardens of The Lodge and other pubs in the area on the Sunday

I’ve been an advertising sponsor of this event for many years now, so many that I can’t remember when I started! My notes suggest that my first involvement with the event may have been in either 2012 or 2013… I’m not sure, but I know that I haven’t missed a year since

I also sponsor two beer festivals in the area, the annual Alsager Beer and Gin Festival, which is held at Alsager Cricket Club in June and raises funds for local good causes, and the Rode Park And Lawton Cricket Club Beer Festival, which raises funds for my local cricket team

In addition to that, I also provide physical support to the Music Festival, in the form of helping the team to set things up in the morning, and to the Alsager Beer Festival in the form of serving behind the bar on the Sunday (those who thought I was going to say I supported that one by drinking some beer at the bar… you’re absolutely right, that’s what I do for the Rode Park one!)

I don’t particularly NEED the advertising that these events create and the reason I support them is that they enhance the local community in which I live

Events like these are important, not only for the money raised or the opportunities created for people to perform on stage, but they’re good for the people of the town to get together and enjoy themselves. These events add something to the experience of living in Alsager and it’s surrounding areas. We’re very lucky here to have a lot of community events like these and I feel quite strongly that the more local businesses that chip in to helping to ensure that they go ahead, the better. For me, it’s about being able to count how many times the phone rings because of that advert, it’s about contributing to society

Alsager Round Table is another organisation in the local area that I support. Again, I can’t remember exactly, but I think my involvement with them started around 2012 after I made a daft and completely uninformed comment on Facebook that the bonfire might get cancelled because of a warehouse fire in Stoke that had destroyed loads of pallets. It was the summertime and still months before the bonfire, but somebody on my friends list called Rob, who I’m pleased to be able to call an actual real life friend now, dropped into my messenger, said that he was organising the bonfire and that instead of unhelpful comments on the internet, what he really needed was for people to be willing to get up at 630am to go to the field and build it

I’m not sure he expected this, but I was well up for that!

So that was that really, I put it in my diary and met the guys at 7am in November to help with unloading broken pallets off lorries and building something resembling a massive bonfire! It’s really one of the best things I’ve ever done and something that again, brings the community together to enjoy a tradition that goes back for generations

The Alsager Music Festival today marks the last of my advertising sponsorship commitments for 2026, but the work with Alsager Round Table doesn’t stop. Later this year, we’ll again be hosting our annual bonfire and firework display at The Plough, then we’ll be putting up the Christmas Lights, then we’ll get a market set up and host a party to switch the lights on and then of course, it’s Santa float time!

I feel very lucky to be fit and in good enough health to be able to do all this and I’d encourage more small business owners to get involved – drop me a message if you’d like to find out more!