Barra Driving Test Centre
At Barra, 68.8% of candidates pass, one of the 323 test centres we rank from the DVSA data. Below you will find the full pass-rate history, the demographic split, the official DVSA waiting time and a comparison with the nearest centres.
DVSA data last updated July 2026
Barra sits in the top 10% of UK car pass rates nationally (Top 3%, rank #9 of 323). The strongest car alternative nearby is Isle of Tiree, about 40.4 miles away.
Pass vs fail at a glance
All-time 121 passed, 55 failed, 176 total
How Barra compares
A 20.1-point lead over the national figure puts Barra ranked 9 of 323 in its category. Gaps this large usually come from the roads, not the examiners: fewer complex junctions and lighter traffic on the local routes.
Where Barra ranks among 323 centres
Pass-rate trend by year
Pass rate by demographic
Waiting time at Barra
The headline figure for reaching 10% availability is 24 weeks, but the typical (median) learner who took their test at Barra in May 2026 had waited 7.4 weeks from booking to test day.
Official DVSA data, May 2026. The median is the time between booking and taking the test; for live availability use the DVSA booking service.
Centre details
Address
Accessibility & facilities
Parking, toilets, and disabled-access details vary by centre. Check the official DVSA find a driving test centre tool, or call DVSA Customer Services on 0300 200 1122.
About this test centre
Barra: a DVSA car test centre in Barraigh, Na h-Eileanan Siar. Local routes, local traffic patterns, no national standard for what "harder" or "easier" looks like beyond what the numbers below show. 176 tests across 2017-18-2024-25. That's a small sample, and the single-period rates you'll see in the chart can swing wildly without much underlying change. The multi-year roll-up is the only stable read.
The top ten percent of the UK by pass rate: Barra ranks #9 of 323 car centres at 68.8%, 20.1 points clear of the national figure of 48.7%. The DVSA's first-attempt figure for Barra sits at 66.7%, 17.7 points clear of the 49% UK average. The gap is wide enough to matter when you're deciding which local centre to book.
All figures shown are aggregated from the DVSA quarterly statistical release covering the most recent reporting periods available. Pass-rate calculations exclude tests cancelled by the candidate or examiner. Sample sizes and methodology are described in the source attribution at the foot of this page.
What learners should know about Barra
- Above-average pass rate at Barra doesn't mean above-average ease. The fundamentals examiners mark are the same nationally: junctions, mirrors, observation, signal timing. A 65%+ pass rate means more candidates clear those, not that the bar is lower.
- 66.7% of first-timers pass at Barra, so the centre is on the forgiving side. If your instructor is signing you off as test-ready, your own preparation matters far more than the venue.
- Barra is a low-volume centre (176 tests on record). Period-to-period swings can look dramatic without much underlying change, read the multi-year aggregate rather than any single quarter's figure.
- If you can, take at least one lesson with an instructor who specifically works the Barra area. Local instructors know which nearby junctions are demanding and will drill them.
- The only legitimate booking route is gov.uk. Anything calling itself a "test booking concierge" is reselling the same slots at a markup, the slots aren't theirs to control.
Other test centres nearby
On the day at Barra
Arrive at Barra with about ten minutes to spare and know your parking options in advance, they vary site to site across the DVSA network. The DVSA centre finder maps the centre and its surroundings. Waits here run around 4 to 8 weeks at low demand, so you can usually pick a date without a long wait. Don't set off without your provisional photocard licence; the test cannot start without it, and your car needs L plates and a working interior mirror. If Benbecula Island is fully booked, Barra is the next closest centre, roughly 34 miles away.
Expect about 40 minutes once you set off, to the same national DVSA script. It opens with an eyesight check at 20 metres and one tell-me question, after which the examiner rides along for the drive and asks one show-me question on the move. Around 20 minutes of that is independent driving, guided either by a sat nav the examiner provides or by road signs to a named destination, with one of four set manoeuvres and a one-in-seven chance of an emergency stop. The drive covers the local mix of road types within roughly a twenty-minute radius of the centre. Across DVSA marking nationally, the fault recorded most often on car tests is junctions - observation, worth drilling on the local routes before your date.
Results come immediately on return to the centre. The examiner talks you through any faults marked, prints the DL25 feedback form, and (if you passed) takes your provisional licence so the full one can be issued by post. A pass needs no more than 15 driving faults and zero serious or dangerous faults, the standard 68.8% of candidates at Barra meet under current DVSA marking.
Frequently asked questions
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How does Barra compare to the UK average?
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Data: DVSA quarterly statistical release, released under the Open Government Licence v3.0. PassRates.uk aggregates DVSA centre-level totals across reporting periods.
Edited by Vikas. DVSA data period: 2024-25.