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
