First-time driving test pass rates in North West, 2025/26

31 test centres in North West ranked by the share of candidates who pass on their first ever driving test, highest to lowest. 122,088 first tests here produced 60,948 passes, a first-time rate of 49.9%, against 50.5% across Great Britain.

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#	Test centre	Region	First tests	First-time pass rate	All attempts	Gap
1	Barrow In Furness	North West	1,008	70.0%	69.6%	+0.4
2	Kendal (Oxenholme Road)	North West	1,217	67.1%	65.1%	+2.0
3	Workington	North West	1,707	63.3%	61.9%	+1.4
4	Heysham	North West	2,082	61.9%	59.2%	+2.7
5	Carlisle	North West	1,866	59.9%	58.7%	+1.2
6	Bredbury (Manchester)	North West	5,536	57.9%	56.0%	+1.9
7	Northwich	North West	1,962	57.3%	57.6%	-0.3
8	Southport (Liverpool)	North West	4,076	57.2%	56.5%	+0.7
9	Preston	North West	5,178	56.9%	56.3%	+0.6
10	Warrington	North West	3,992	55.5%	55.5%	+0.0
11	Upton	North West	5,194	54.9%	52.6%	+2.3
12	Wallasey	North West	537	54.4%	54.3%	+0.1
13	Chorley	North West	2,663	54.0%	52.8%	+1.2
14	Sale (Manchester)	North West	5,346	53.0%	51.4%	+1.6
15	Bolton (Manchester)	North West	5,792	52.8%	51.8%	+1.0
16	Macclesfield	North West	2,337	52.2%	51.9%	+0.3
17	Nelson	North West	2,957	52.1%	51.7%	+0.4
18	Blackpool	North West	4,214	51.9%	51.8%	+0.1
19	Rochdale (Manchester)	North West	5,079	48.6%	48.3%	+0.3
20	West Didsbury (Manchester)	North West	8,938	48.1%	47.7%	+0.4
21	Chester	North West	4,395	47.9%	47.3%	+0.6
22	Bury (Manchester)	North West	3,304	45.7%	46.3%	-0.6
23	Chadderton	North West	7,300	45.6%	46.8%	-1.2
24	Blackburn with Darwen	North West	5,073	45.5%	46.6%	-1.1
25	Atherton (Manchester)	North West	5,708	45.1%	44.3%	+0.8
26	Cheetham Hill (Manchester)	North West	5,002	44.1%	44.7%	-0.6
27	Crewe	North West	2,449	42.6%	43.8%	-1.2
28	St Helens (Liverpool)	North West	5,599	42.1%	40.9%	+1.2
29	Speke (Liverpool)	North West	3,280	41.5%	40.5%	+1.0
30	Widnes (Liverpool)	North West	2,699	41.3%	42.7%	-1.4
31	Norris Green (Liverpool)	North West	5,598	36.0%	37.8%	-1.8

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 North West test centre directory.