Derry still posts lowest driving test pass-rate

The pass-rate for the Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA) centre at Altnagelvin was just 44.4 per cent.

The low rate is detailed in the ‘DfI Driver, Vehicle, Operator, and Enforcement Statistics Quarter Three: October to December 2020,’ published on Friday.

The document states: “By test centre, and using a rolling 4-quarter average, the pass-rate for private-car driving tests ranged from 44.4 per cent in Londonderry (Altnagelvin) to 77.8 per cent in Downpatrick. Downpatrick has now recorded the highest pass-rate for private car tests every quarter for more than seven years.”

The 44.4 per cent pass rate at Altnagelvin was much lower than the average.

“For October to December 2020, the pass-rate for private-car driving tests was 66.1 per cent, up by 11.5 percentage-points on the 54.6 per cent average of the five years prior to the pandemic. Prior to this quarter, pass-rates for all categories of vehicle remained broadly unchanged over the past five years. It is too soon to say whether this is indicative of a change in the under-lying trend or just an effect of the pandemic. In general, NI pass-rates across all four main vehicle categories are higher than the pass-rates in Great Britain. Part of the difference between NI and GB pass-rates may be attributable to regional driving conditions including the volumes of traffic and complexity of available road networks for testing.”