The 10 most common driving test faults, 2025/26
Examiners mark against a fixed list of competencies on the DL25 sheet, and every year DVSA publishes which ten collected the most faults. The list barely moves. Observation at junctions has been number one in all 19 years DVSA has published it, going back to 2007/08. If you are deciding what to spend your last few lessons on, this is the honest answer.
- 1
Junctions - observation
Pulling out without looking long enough, or looking but going anyway. It has been the most common fault every year DVSA has published the list.
- 2
Mirrors - change direction
Checking mirrors after you have started to turn or change lane instead of before. Examiners watch your head, not just the car.
- 3
Junctions - turning right
Cutting the corner into the road you are joining, or stopping in the wrong place while waiting to turn.
- 4
Response to signs - traffic lights
Moving off on green without checking the junction is clear, or stopping over the line.
- 5
Control - steering
Mounting the kerb, drifting wide on a bend, or letting the wheel spin back on its own.
- 6
Move off - safely
Pulling away without a blind-spot check, or without waiting for a gap that is actually there.
- 7
Response to signs - road markings
Straddling lane markings, ignoring a box junction, or taking the wrong lane at a roundabout.
- 8
Response to signs - traffic signs
Missing a give way, a no-entry, or a speed limit change.
- 9
Positioning - normal driving
Sitting too close to the kerb or too near the centre line on ordinary roads.
- 10
Progress - appropriate speed
Driving so far below the limit that you hold up traffic, or hesitating at a junction when it was clear to go. Undue hesitation fails more tests than speeding does.
How the order has changed
Rank in each year's top ten. A blank cell means the fault did not make that year's list. DVSA changed some of the wording in 2023/24 (“Response to signals” became “Response to signs”), so the older rows are matched to the current names.
| Fault | 2025/26 | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | 2021/22 | 2020/21 | 2019/20 | 2018/19 | 2017/18 | 2016/17 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Junctions - observation | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Mirrors - change direction | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Junctions - turning right | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Response to signs - traffic lights | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Control - steering | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Move off - safely | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Response to signs - road markings | 7 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 7 | – | 9 | 10 | – |
| Response to signs - traffic signs | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 10 | – | – | 10 |
| Positioning - normal driving | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 6 |
| Progress - appropriate speed | 10 | – | – | – | 10 | – | – | – | – | – |
What the list does not tell you
These are faults recorded, not tests failed. Most of them are driving faults (the ones examiners call minors) and you are allowed fifteen. A test ends in a fail when one of them is serious or dangerous, or when the same minor is repeated often enough to become a pattern. That is why observation at junctions tops the list every year: it is both the most-marked minor and one of the commonest serious faults.
DVSA publishes this nationally, not by centre. What varies locally is how often you meet the situation: a centre surrounded by busy T-junctions will test your junction observation twenty times in forty minutes, and a rural one might not. The road profile on each test centre page shows which of these you are likely to be doing repeatedly, and why people fail the driving test goes through each fault as it looks from the passenger seat, with the habit that removes it.
Source: DVSA table DRT121F, car driving tests, top 10 faults. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.