Stornoway Driving Test Centre
The Stornoway driving test centre is located in Steòrnabhagh, 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
3.0K passed, 2.4K failed, 5.4K total
How Stornoway compares
Stornoway performs notably better than the UK average. This often correlates with rural or suburban routes that have fewer multi-lane roundabouts and complex urban scenarios.
Where Stornoway ranks among 323 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 Stornoway have remained broadly stable through recent reporting periods. Booking is comparatively quick: learners booking at Stornoway 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
Stornoway: a DVSA car test centre in Steòrnabhagh, 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. Sample size: 5.4K tests over 2017-18-2024-25. Enough that comparisons hold up; small enough that a single examiner retiring or a route being temporarily diverted can show in the data.
The top quarter of the UK by pass rate: Stornoway ranks #77 of 323 car centres at 57.7%, 9 points clear of the national figure of 48.7%. First-time pass rate: 56.8%. UK average: 49%. Stornoway is 7.8 points to the good on first attempts, a meaningful gap, not a rounding artefact.
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 Stornoway
- Don't read a higher pass rate as a softer test. Stornoway's rate reflects route geography more than examiner discretion, DVSA marking is centrally trained. Prepare for the same fault categories you'd prepare for anywhere.
- 56.8% of first-timers pass at Stornoway. If your instructor is signing you off as test-ready, that figure is a fair guide, the centre isn't the variable, your preparation is.
- Ask any instructor working Stornoway about the centre's "usual fails", they'll have two or three specific junctions or manoeuvres in mind. Practise those until they're automatic before your date.
- 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 Stornoway
Give yourself ten minutes in hand when you head to Stornoway, and look up where to park beforehand, facilities differ from one DVSA site to the next. The DVSA centre finder shows the exact location. Modelled waits here sit around 6 weeks at low demand, which tends to mean less competition for a date that suits you. You must have your provisional photocard licence on you, plus a car with L plates and a working interior mirror for the examiner. If Stornoway is fully booked, Stornoway is the next closest centre, roughly 1 mile away.
The practical lasts about 40 minutes and uses the standard DVSA format nationwide. After an eyesight check at 20 metres and one show-me and one tell-me question, the examiner sits in for the drive. Roughly 20 minutes of that is independent driving, either following a sat nav set by the examiner or following road signs, and you will complete one of four set manoeuvres; about one in three tests includes 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.
The result is given immediately when you get back. Whatever the outcome, the examiner reads through the marked faults and prints your DL25 feedback form; pass and they take the provisional licence to trigger your full one by post. The threshold is the national one, 15 driving faults at most and zero serious or dangerous, which 57.7% of Stornoway's candidates reach right now.
Frequently asked questions
What is the pass rate at Stornoway?
Is Stornoway an easy or hard test centre?
How does Stornoway compare to the UK average?
How many tests are taken at Stornoway each year?
Which driving test centres are near Stornoway?
When is the best time to book a test at Stornoway?
How do I book a test at Stornoway and what do I need?
How long is the wait for a driving test at Stornoway?
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.