First-time driving test pass rates in East Midlands, 2025/26
19 test centres in East Midlands ranked by the share of candidates who pass on their first ever driving test, highest to lowest. 74,190 first tests here produced 38,245 passes, a first-time rate of 51.6%, against 50.5% across Great Britain.
| # | Test centre | Region | First tests | First-time pass rate | All attempts | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Melton Mowbray | East Midlands | 1,215 | 71.2% | 69.7% | +1.5 |
| 2 | Buxton | East Midlands | 2,278 | 61.4% | 58.7% | +2.7 |
| 3 | Grantham (Somerby) | East Midlands | 3,936 | 59.6% | 57.9% | +1.7 |
| 4 | Wellingborough | East Midlands | 786 | 59.4% | 60.0% | -0.6 |
| 5 | Ashfield | East Midlands | 4,283 | 59.2% | 57.3% | +1.9 |
| 6 | Chesterfield | East Midlands | 3,440 | 56.5% | 56.2% | +0.3 |
| 7 | Worksop | East Midlands | 3,301 | 56.2% | 55.2% | +1.0 |
| 8 | Skegness | East Midlands | 1,132 | 55.4% | 55.9% | -0.5 |
| 9 | Derby (Alvaston) | East Midlands | 4,342 | 52.9% | 51.8% | +1.1 |
| 10 | Boston | East Midlands | 2,442 | 52.8% | 50.7% | +2.1 |
| 11 | Lincoln | East Midlands | 3,315 | 52.5% | 52.1% | +0.4 |
| 12 | Northampton | East Midlands | 6,892 | 51.8% | 52.1% | -0.3 |
| 13 | Leicester (Wigston) | East Midlands | 8,783 | 50.2% | 51.2% | -1.0 |
| 14 | Kettering | East Midlands | 5,647 | 50.1% | 49.1% | +1.0 |
| 15 | Nottingham (Chilwell) | East Midlands | 4,888 | 49.2% | 49.9% | -0.7 |
| 16 | Nottingham (Colwick ) | East Midlands | 7,214 | 47.6% | 46.4% | +1.2 |
| 17 | Hinckley | East Midlands | 2,087 | 46.2% | 46.4% | -0.2 |
| 18 | Loughborough | East Midlands | 2,577 | 42.6% | 42.3% | +0.3 |
| 19 | Leicester (Cannock Street) | East Midlands | 5,632 | 38.5% | 40.2% | -1.7 |
What a first-time pass rate measures
The headline pass rate at a test centre mixes two groups: people sitting the driving test for the first time, and people coming back for a second, third or fifth attempt. The figure on this page counts only the first group. Of the candidates who arrived at each centre having never sat a driving test before, this is the share who drove away with a licence, which is the question you are actually asking if you have never taken the test.
The difference is smaller than most people expect. In 2025/26 the first-time rate across Great Britain was 50.5%, against 50.0% counting every attempt, a gap of 0.5 points. Centre by centre it splits almost evenly: of the 257 centres here with both figures published, 140 pass first-timers at a higher rate than their candidates overall and 107 at a lower one, with a median difference of 0.2 points. Retaking is not the drag on a centre's headline number that it is often assumed to be.
28,207 of those first-time passes were clean sheets, with no driving faults recorded at all, not even a minor. That is 5.7% of everyone who passed at the first attempt.
Centres with fewer than 500 first tests in the year are left out, because at that size a couple of dozen results moves the rate by several points and the ranking stops meaning anything. 54 centres are excluded on that rule.
The same ranking for the whole country is on the national first-time pass rate table, and addresses, waiting times and route notes for these centres are in the East Midlands test centre directory.