Whitby driving test centre
Unit F11, St Hilda's Business Centre, Green Lane, Whitby, YO22 4ET
Drive the 5 routes around Whitby before test day →
Key facts
- Whitby's pass rate was 56.7% in 2025/26 from 557 tests, 6.7 points above the national average of 50.0%.
- That puts it 6 of 27 centres in Yorkshire and The Humber (Yorkshire and The Humber average 50.4%), one of the higher pass rates in the region, 6.3 points above it.
- The rate has been stable since 2021/22, moving between 52.2% (2022/23) and 65.1% (2024/25).
- Male candidates passed at 60.7% and female candidates at 52.3%, a gap of 8.4 points, wider than at most centres.
- On waiting times, learners who took a test in August 2026 had waited a median of 19 weeks since booking (longer than the national median of 11.9 weeks); the first week with 10% or more of slots still free was 18 weeks ahead.
- A year earlier (August 2025) the median wait was 15.1 weeks, so waits have grown by about 3.9 weeks.
Whitby is a small centre in a town split by a river and a railway, and both show up in the driving. Four level crossings sit within two and a half kilometres of the test centre, and the streets near the harbour are narrow, old and often busy with visitors. Away from the water the A171 and A174 climb out onto the moor, so a single loop can run from a queue on a Victorian street to open moorland road in a few minutes. Fewer than six hundred car tests are taken here in a year, which is why the wait stretches to about nineteen weeks. The centre is a unit in St Hilda's Business Centre on Green Lane, above the town on the east side.
Drive the Whitby test routes before test day
5 loops from the centre, 52 km in all, with 6 roundabouts and 93 marked turns. Generated from the road network within 2.5 km of Whitby; not DVSA’s own routes, but the same roads.
Drive it before test day
Drive all 5 loops around Whitby from your phone before you ever sit in the car: every roundabout, every junction, in the order you will meet them.
- 5 routes · 52 km · 93 marked turns
- Examiner-style marking on signalling and observation
- Street View tour of each route
- Every roundabout and junction, in the order you'll meet them
- The four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios, included
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- Route 1 · via Stainsacre Lane10.6 km loop with 2 roundabouts, 8 right turns, 7 left turns and a stretch of Stakesby Road.10.6 km · 17 turns · 2 roundabouts
- Route 2 · via Hawsker Lane11.2 km loop with 11 right turns, 6 left turns and a stretch of Green Lane.11.2 km · 17 turns
- Route 3 · via Hawsker Lane12.7 km loop with 1 roundabout, 8 right turns, 14 left turns and a stretch of Larpool Lane.12.7 km · 23 turns · 1 roundabout
- Route 4 · via Ruswarp Lane8.6 km loop with 2 roundabouts, 8 right turns, 6 left turns and a stretch of Green Lane.8.6 km · 16 turns · 2 roundabouts
- Route 5 · via Green Lane9.4 km loop with 1 roundabout, 11 right turns, 8 left turns and a stretch of Hawsker Lane.9.4 km · 20 turns · 1 roundabout
The same access also opens the four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios: the two things a route drive cannot teach you.
Most of a Whitby test is at 30 mph. Around seven in ten of the tagged roads within two and a half kilometres carry that limit, with a smaller share at 20 and about one in ten at the national limit out on the moor roads. Green Lane, Hawsker Lane and Larpool Lane carry the loops on the east side, and Chubb Hill Road, Bagdale, Brunswick Street and Stakesby Road cover the west.
The town centre is the difficult part. Flowergate, Silver Street, The Ropery and St Ann's Staith are narrow, one-way in places, and full of people who are not looking for cars. Meeting traffic on a street with room for one vehicle is normal, and the examiner is watching who yields, how early you decide, and whether you can hold a hill start without rolling back. Chubb Hill Road and Khyber Pass are the sort of climb where clutch control is genuinely tested rather than nominally checked.
Junctions are mostly signals and give ways rather than roundabouts. There are eight sets of lights in the area and only two conventional roundabouts, at Four Lane Ends and Upgang Lane, plus two mini-roundabouts. That makes the four level crossings the more distinctive feature: a barrier stop on the Esk Valley line is a realistic part of a test here, and stopping short, waiting properly and moving off cleanly is worth rehearsing.
Manoeuvres are usually asked for on quieter estate roads, and the loops on this page run through the streets around Whitby Laithes and Highgate Howe for exactly that reason.
Waiting time for a test at Whitby
Median weeks between booking and taking the test, for tests taken each month. Dashed line: GB median for August 2026.
| Month | Median wait | Weeks to free slots | Slots offered | Still free |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2026 | 19 | 18 | 16 | 32% |
| Jul 2026 | 19 | 20.3 | 17 | 30.5% |
| Jun 2026 | 17.6 | 11 | 8 | 12.8% |
| May 2026 | 20.5 | 16.8 | 7 | 48.2% |
| Apr 2026 | 20.4 | 20.3 | 13 | 48.2% |
| Mar 2026 | 22.1 | 17.4 | 6 | 58.8% |
Pass rate at Whitby, 2007/08 to 2025/26
Share of car tests passed each April-to-March year. Dashed line: Great Britain average for 2025/26.
Month by month, 2025/26
By year and gender
| Year | Tests | Pass rate | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 557 | 56.7% | 60.7% | 52.3% |
| 2024/25 | 513 | 65.1% | 65.9% | 64.2% |
| 2023/24 | 514 | 58.2% | 63.5% | 53.3% |
| 2022/23 | 362 | 52.2% | 56.2% | 48.7% |
| 2021/22 | 260 | 56.2% | 58.0% | 54.7% |
| 2020/21 | 87 | 58.6% | 61.1% | 56.9% |
| 2019/20 | 490 | 59.2% | 62.6% | 56.0% |
| 2018/19 | 495 | 63.4% | 71.0% | 56.3% |
Yorkshire and The Humber average 50.4% · GB 50%
Tell me when the wait at Whitby drops
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Test day at Whitby
The centre is Unit F11 in St Hilda's Business Centre on Green Lane, a modern business park rather than a shop unit, so look for the estate first and the unit number second. Whitby station is about half a kilometre away, which makes the train or a bus into town a workable way to arrive. Parking for candidates is not published; business-park units of this kind usually have shared bays, and the sensible plan is to arrive early and take a space that is obviously not reserved.
DVSA publishes that this centre provides car tests only, and that it will make arrangements for candidates with a disability. If you need something specific, ring the booking line rather than raising it on the day.
The morning is standard: licence check, insurance declaration, then the eyesight check outside on a parked number plate. Because the centre is small and the wait is long, moving a booking here is harder than at most places. If your date is far out, Scarborough down the coast has a much shorter wait, and Malton further inland has a considerably higher pass rate, so both are worth weighing against the extra travel before you settle on Whitby.
What DVSA publishes about Whitby
Taken from the GOV.UK test centre finder, checked 3 September 2026. Where DVSA says nothing, this site says nothing.
- Tests conducted here
- car
- Wheelchair access
- Not published. DVSA says it will make arrangements for candidates with a disability, which is not the same as step-free access. Ring DVSA before the day rather than assuming.
Learner reports from Whitby
No reports yet for this centre. If you tested here, the first one is yours to write.
What examiners mark most often
DVSA does not publish faults by centre, but it does publish them nationally. These collected the most marks across every car test in Great Britain in 2025/26, and they are the same ones you will be marked on at Whitby.
- 1Junctions - observation
- 2Mirrors - change direction
- 3Junctions - turning right
- 4Response to signs - traffic lights
- 5Control - steering
- 6Move off - safely
Getting there
Unit F11, St Hilda's Business Centre, Green LaneWhitby YO22 4ET
Directions in Google Maps · Check centre notes on GOV.UK
Nearby centres
- ScarboroughYO12 4AY · 27 km45.1%-4.9 vs GB7 wkswait
- MiddlesbroughTS3 8TE · 39 km47.7%-2.3 vs GB14.3 wkswait
- MaltonYO17 7LB · 40 km64.3%+14.3 vs GB10 wkswait
Questions learners ask about Whitby
- Is Whitby an easy test centre?
- By the numbers, yes: 56.7% of car tests were passed there in 2025/26, against 50.0% nationally. Pass rates reflect the local roads and who takes tests there as much as the examiners, so treat it as a guide, not a guarantee.
- How long is the wait for a driving test at Whitby?
- In August 2026 the median gap between booking and sitting a test at Whitby was 19 weeks, and you had to look about 18 weeks ahead to find a week with at least 10% of slots free. DVSA publishes this monthly; the figure above updates when they do.
- Where is Whitby driving test centre?
- Whitby test centre is at Unit F11, St Hilda's Business Centre, Green Lane, Whitby, YO22 4ET. Arrive at least 10 minutes early with your provisional licence; parking rules vary by centre, so check the learner reports below.
- How many driving tests does Whitby do a year?
- 557 car tests were conducted at Whitby in 2025/26, of which 316 were passed.
Source: DVSA tables DRT122A (pass rates by centre and month) and DRT122F (waiting times and availability), Open Government Licence v3.0. PassRank adds the comparisons and rankings.
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