Orkney Driving Test Centre
The Orkney driving test centre is located in Orkney Islands, Scotland. Below are the official pass-rate statistics, multi-year trend, demographic breakdown, and how this centre compares against the UK average and its neighbours, all drawn from the DVSA quarterly statistical release.
Pass vs fail at a glance
336 passed, 103 failed, 439 total
How Orkney compares
Orkney performs well above the UK average. Learners passing here are more likely to pass than at most other UK centres, though this can also reflect quieter test routes and fewer challenging junctions.
Where Orkney ranks among 152 centres
Pass-rate trend by year
Most common faults at this centre
The fault categories most frequently recorded against learners on test. Knowing them lets you target practice on the things examiners are most likely to penalise.
- 1Junctions - observation10
- 2Mirrors - change direction9
- 3Move off - safely8
- 4Junctions - turning right7
- 5Response to signs - traffic lights6
Per-centre fault breakdowns are derived from the DVSA national fault distribution applied to centre-level test outcomes.
Pass rate by demographic
Estimated wait time and demand
Wait times at Orkney have remained broadly stable through recent reporting periods. Booking is comparatively quick: learners booking at Orkney typically wait around 6 weeks from booking to test day.
Wait time is estimated from regional demand patterns reported in the National Audit Office investigation into car driving test waiting times (Dec 2024) and the DVSA Despatch blog updates, combined with this centre's test volume. Real availability fluctuates with examiner staffing and cancellations, always check the official DVSA booking service for live slots.
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
Of the DVSA hgv/lgv centres across Scotland, Orkney is the one covering Orkney Islands. The routes are built around the roads the centre's examiners can reach inside the test's time budget. Small sample warning: 439 tests across 2015-16-2023-24. The headline rate on this page is the multi-year aggregate, which is the only version of the number worth trusting at this volume.
If you've been told Orkney is "an easy centre" or "a hard one", the data won't fully back that. 76.5% is 27.8 points clear of the UK hgv/lgv average of 48.7%, which is rank #14 out of 152. For Orkney the DVSA suppresses first-attempt figures in DRT122C. Smaller centres get rolled up; this is one of them. The overall pass rate above is the only published figure.
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 Orkney
- Orkney passes higher than the UK average, but the marking sheet is identical to every other DVSA centre. The bias is in the routes (less traffic, simpler junction geometry); the standard is national.
- Orkney is a low-volume centre (439 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 Orkney routes. Local instructors know which junctions are the centre's hardest and will drill them.
- If you missed the earlier slots at Orkney, the DVSA's official cancellation pool refreshes constantly. Check at off-peak times (early morning, late evening) for better odds.
Other test centres nearby
On the day at Orkney
Turn up at Orkney ten minutes before your appointment, and check ahead where you can park, DVSA sites vary on that. You can preview the location on the DVSA centre finder. At low demand and roughly 6 weeks' wait, getting a date that works for you is usually straightforward. The examiner will ask to see your provisional photocard licence before anything else, and your car must carry L plates and a working interior mirror.
Plan for a drive of roughly 40 minutes, identical in structure to every other DVSA centre. First comes the 20-metre eyesight check and a pair of vehicle-safety questions, one show-me, one tell-me, then the examiner joins you for the road section. About 20 minutes is independent driving by sat nav or by following signs to a named target, you tackle one of four set manoeuvres, and around a third of candidates get an emergency stop. The drive covers the local mix of road types within roughly a twenty-minute radius of the centre. Across recent DVSA marking, the fault logged most often at this centre is junctions - observation, worth drilling on the local routes before your date.
You find out there and then, back at Orkney. The examiner runs through the faults on the DL25 feedback form and, on a pass, keeps your provisional licence so a full licence follows in the post. Clearing the test means staying under 16 driving faults, that is 15 or fewer, with no serious or dangerous fault; 76.5% of candidates here manage it on the current marking.
Frequently asked questions
What is the pass rate at Orkney?
Is Orkney an easy or hard test centre?
How does Orkney compare to the UK average?
How many tests are taken at Orkney each year?
Which driving test centres are near Orkney?
When is the best time to book a test at Orkney?
How do I book a test at Orkney and what do I need?
How long is the wait for a driving test at Orkney?
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: 2023-24.