Rank 7 of 11 regionsDVSA 2025/26

Scotland test centres: 49.3% average, a 36.9-point spread and £415 between the best and worst.

DVSA ran 140,572 car practical tests across 74 Scotland centres in April 2025 to March 2026 and 69,359 candidates passed. The gap between Pitlochry at 73.3% and Dunfermline (Vine) at 36.4% is worth about £415 of expected fees and retake lessons.

Regional pass rate: 49.3%
Test centres: 74
Median wait: 17.4 wk
Lesson rate: £30-£38

Scotland learner budget

At the Scotland average of 49.3% and £34 an hour.

Provisional licence£34
Theory test£23
45 hours at £34£1,530
DVSA fees (2.03 attempts)£126
Retake lessons£244
Typical Scotland total£1,957

Excludes learner insurance and costs after passing. Full cost stack.

What the Scotland numbers say

Scotland passes below the national rate.

Across 74 centres, Scotland recorded 49.3% in April 2025 to March 2026, 0.7 percentage points below the 50.03% figure for Great Britain, which ranks it 7 of 11 DVSA regions. That is 140,572 tests and 69,359 passes.

The regional average hides the choice that actually matters. Pitlochry finished the year on 73.3% from 146 tests, Dunfermline (Vine) on 36.4% from 5,529. On the expected-attempts model the first implies 1.36 attempts and £171 of fees and retake lessons, the second 2.75 attempts and £586. The 36.9-point spread is therefore a £415 decision.

Waiting time varies as widely as the pass rate. Campbeltown showed a median 26.9 weeks between booking and test in the latest DVSA reading, against 5.9 weeks at Inverness (Longman Drive). The regional median is 17.4 weeks, and the national median across all 317 centres is 11.9. Queue length is the part of a fail that a cost table misses: each retake pushes the licence back by roughly the local median, with insurance and lesson top-ups running through it.

Glasgow (Baillieston) is the busiest centre in Scotland at 10,428 tests, passing 47.4%. Lesson rates across Scotland run £30 to £38 an hour for manual tuition, which is what turns a percentage point of pass rate into a pound figure: at £34 an hour, each extra expected attempt costs £300 in fee and follow-up lessons.

7 Scotland centres ran fewer than 100 tests in the year. DVSA warns that figures at that scale are not reliable for comparing centres, so they are listed in the table below with their published figures but have no page of their own.

Every centre

All 74 Scotland test centres, ranked.

Test cycle cost is the expected DVSA fees plus retake lessons at the Scotland rate of £34 an hour, so the column compares centres on the one variable that changes: how many attempts the pass rate implies.

Car practical test pass rates and costs at every Scotland test centre
#	Test centre	Pass rate	Tests	1st attempt	Wait	Attempts	Test cycle cost
1	Isle of Mull low volume	73.8%	42	72.7%	21.6 wk	1.35	£168
2	Gairloch low volume	73.5%	49	73.1%	6.3 wk	1.36	£170
3	Pitlochry	73.3%	146	73.8%	18.1 wk	1.36	£171
4	Benbecula Island	72.9%	107	73.2%	10.6 wk	1.37	£174
5	Girvan	72.0%	250	70.3%	19.9 wk	1.39	£179
6	Campbeltown	71.6%	109	76.0%	26.9 wk	1.40	£181
7	Dunoon	71.5%	193	72.2%	21.1 wk	1.40	£182
8	Stranraer	71.2%	215	70.2%	19.2 wk	1.41	£184
9	Golspie low volume	71.0%	93	64.7%	15.6 wk	1.41	£185
10	Duns	70.2%	171	69.2%	22.4 wk	1.42	£189
11	Montrose	70.0%	621	71.4%	20.2 wk	1.43	£190
12	Inveraray	69.3%	124	75.4%	20.9 wk	1.44	£195
13	Aberfeldy	68.5%	149	73.1%	20.3 wk	1.46	£200
14	Lerwick	67.8%	379	70.3%	9.1 wk	1.47	£204
15	Arbroath	67.4%	605	70.5%	25.9 wk	1.48	£207
16	Cumnock	67.4%	760	69.5%	21.6 wk	1.48	£207
17	Brodick (Isle of Arran) low volume	67.3%	55	66.7%	19.1 wk	1.49	£208
18	Stornoway	66.6%	344	67.6%	8.1 wk	1.50	£213
19	Oban	66.2%	322	66.3%	15.4 wk	1.51	£216
20	Newton Stewart	65.8%	225	64.0%	19.6 wk	1.52	£218
21	Fort William	65.5%	374	69.2%	15.6 wk	1.53	£220
22	Hawick	64.3%	415	68.5%	24.9 wk	1.55	£228
23	Mallaig low volume	64.2%	53	n/a	10.9 wk	1.56	£230
24	Fraserburgh	64.0%	531	63.6%	18.1 wk	1.56	£231
25	Huntly	63.7%	245	62.8%	13.3 wk	1.57	£233
26	Alness	63.1%	783	63.1%	14.9 wk	1.59	£238
27	Thurso	63.0%	162	64.4%	15.1 wk	1.59	£238
28	Inverurie	62.0%	749	63.8%	17.7 wk	1.61	£246
29	Ullapool low volume	61.2%	49	58.1%	8.4 wk	1.63	£252
30	Forfar	60.3%	667	59.4%	24.1 wk	1.66	£260
31	Wick	59.4%	239	61.8%	11.4 wk	1.68	£267
32	Kelso	59.2%	434	59.3%	22.9 wk	1.69	£269
33	Kingussie low volume	59.1%	93	61.4%	18.3 wk	1.69	£269
34	Peebles	58.8%	685	63.1%	22 wk	1.70	£272
35	Lanark	58.1%	1,914	58.5%	20.4 wk	1.72	£278
36	East Kilbride	57.7%	1,976	58.2%	18.3 wk	1.73	£282
37	Haddington	57.5%	2,195	58.2%	23.3 wk	1.74	£283
38	Banff	57.5%	280	54.8%	14 wk	1.74	£284
39	Ayr	57.5%	2,189	58.0%	13.1 wk	1.74	£284
40	Kyle of Lochalsh	57.4%	136	56.5%	14.1 wk	1.74	£285
41	Dundee	57.3%	3,742	57.9%	8.8 wk	1.75	£286
42	Isle of Skye (Portree)	57.0%	128	57.6%	8.3 wk	1.75	£288
43	Grantown-On-Spey	56.9%	137	58.3%	21.6 wk	1.76	£289
44	Lochgilphead	56.4%	140	55.4%	14.3 wk	1.77	£294
45	Orkney	55.9%	320	51.3%	6.9 wk	1.79	£298
46	Irvine	55.7%	4,941	56.6%	18.3 wk	1.80	£301
47	Livingston	55.7%	2,997	56.3%	17.4 wk	1.80	£301
48	Dumfries	54.0%	2,267	59.2%	11.9 wk	1.85	£318
49	Castle Douglas	53.4%	549	60.4%	18.1 wk	1.87	£324
50	Peterhead	53.2%	2,628	53.3%	7.4 wk	1.88	£326
51	Dumbarton	52.8%	1,659	51.4%	12.9 wk	1.89	£330
52	Aberdeen South (Cove)	52.4%	4,858	51.4%	6.3 wk	1.91	£334
53	Rothesay	52.0%	125	52.7%	23.6 wk	1.92	£339
54	Buckie	51.1%	268	46.3%	6 wk	1.96	£349
55	Kirkcaldy	50.9%	4,313	49.7%	17.4 wk	1.97	£352
56	Grangemouth	50.7%	3,761	50.4%	23.1 wk	1.97	£354
57	Callander	49.9%	335	49.7%	26.9 wk	2.01	£364
58	Bishopbriggs	49.8%	6,186	53.6%	16 wk	2.01	£365
59	Edinburgh (Musselburgh)	49.5%	6,850	49.9%	16 wk	2.02	£369
60	Perth (Arran Road)	48.8%	2,642	47.2%	12.9 wk	2.05	£376
61	Paisley	48.6%	7,912	47.1%	13.7 wk	2.06	£379
62	Aberdeen North	48.2%	3,906	48.5%	15.4 wk	2.08	£385
63	Glasgow (Baillieston)	47.4%	10,428	48.0%	18.3 wk	2.11	£394
64	Galashiels	47.4%	2,241	50.7%	7.4 wk	2.11	£395
65	Airdrie	47.4%	4,599	47.4%	20.9 wk	2.11	£395
66	Inverness (Longman Drive)	45.9%	3,252	45.2%	5.9 wk	2.18	£416
67	Glasgow (Anniesland)	44.3%	6,170	44.3%	21.3 wk	2.26	£439
68	Stirling	43.0%	2,747	44.3%	12.5 wk	2.32	£459
69	Elgin	42.3%	2,934	41.3%	10.7 wk	2.37	£472
70	Hamilton	42.0%	6,112	40.7%	17.6 wk	2.38	£476
71	Greenock	41.7%	3,547	40.5%	9 wk	2.40	£481
72	Edinburgh (Currie)	41.5%	6,202	42.8%	23 wk	2.41	£484
73	Glasgow (Shieldhall)	39.9%	7,019	39.0%	16.3 wk	2.50	£513
74	Dunfermline (Vine)	36.4%	5,529	36.4%	15.1 wk	2.75	£586

Pass rate by age

17-year-olds in Scotland pass at 63.7%. 25-year-olds pass at 45.6%.

DVSA table DRT122D splits each centre by single year of age. Across Scotland that is a 18.1-point spread, against 14.9 points nationally, from 25,598 tests at 17 and 3,781 at 25. On this page’s arithmetic, at the £34 Scotland lesson rate, the gap is worth £187 in expected fees and retake lessons.

Aggregated from the age cells DVSA published at the 74 Scotland centres in that table. Cells the agency withholds are left out, never estimated, so this curve rests only on published counts. Each centre page below carries its own age split where its cells are large enough to publish. The national age curve and how to read it.

Scotland, pass rate by age

171819202122232425

Age 17: 63.7%
Age 25: 45.6%
Gap: 18.1 pts

Scotland against the rest

Where Scotland sits among the eleven DVSA regions.

South East53.2%

Wales52.4%

South West51.7%

East of England51.4%

East Midlands50.8%

Yorkshire and The Humber50.5%

Scotland49.3%

North West49.0%

London48.8%

North East48.4%

West Midlands46.2%

Other regions

South East53.2%Wales52.4%South West51.7%East of England51.4%East Midlands50.8%Yorkshire and The Humber50.5%North West49.0%London48.8%North East48.4%West Midlands46.2%

Local cost guides for Scotland

Edinburgh driving test cost Glasgow driving test cost

Source and provenance

Pass rates, test volumes, gender splits and waiting times on this page are published statistics from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), taken from Driving test and theory test data: cars, tables DRT122A (Car driving test pass rates by gender and month: test centres, updated 2026-06-25), DRT122C (Car driving test pass rates by first driving attempt and gender, including zero faults: test centres, updated 2026-06-25), DRT122D (Car driving test pass rates by age (17 to 25 year olds), year and test centre, updated 2026-06-25) and DRT122F (Car driving test waiting times and availability by driving test centre, updated 2026-08-12). Centre-level figures cover the April 2025 to March 2026 financial year; the national quarterly series runs to June 2026. Snapshot taken 2026-09-04.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Cost figures are drivingtestcost.com’s own, from the GOV.UK fee schedule and our regional lesson survey; DVSA publishes no prices and none of the money on this page comes from DVSA.

drivingtestcost.com is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the DVSA, the DVA or GOV.UK. Pass rates are DVSA published statistics reproduced under the Open Government Licence, not our assessment of any centre. Great Britain only; Northern Ireland tests are run separately by the DVA. DVSA cautions that centre figures below about 100 tests a year are not robust for comparison.

The age curve is aggregated from the single-year-of-age cells DVSA published for the 74 Scotland centres in DRT122D. DVSA withholds the counts in small age cells; those cells are excluded here rather than estimated or back-filled from a block total.