Advertising and Affiliate Disclosure

The short version

PassRates.uk is a free reference site. The site is funded by standard display advertising and may include affiliate links to relevant UK services. We do not run sponsored content, paid placements, or pay-for-ranking deals, and we do not directly collect personal information from visitors.

This page exists so you know exactly what runs commercially on the site, how each item is labelled, and how it relates (or does not relate) to the rankings and editorial content. It is written to follow the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) CAP Code and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) guidance on transparent online monetisation.

How PassRates.uk makes money

• Display advertising via Google AdSense. When ads are active they are served programmatically by Google in placements we approve in the AdSense dashboard. We do not pick individual advertisers; the ad inventory is filled by Google's auction. The AdSense site review is still in progress at the time of writing; ads will appear once Google approves the site.
• Affiliate links to relevant UK driving services (driving schools, learner insurance, theory test products, and similar). When an affiliate link is used we earn a small commission if you click and buy. The price you pay is the same as buying direct. No affiliate partners are active at the time of writing; this section will reflect any that are added.
• That is the entire list. No paid newsletter, no sponsored content, no pay-for-ranking, no "featured centre" deals, no lead-generation contracts with driving schools, no data sold to brokers.

Display advertising (Google AdSense)

PassRates.uk shows contextual ads via Google AdSense. AdSense runs on the site under publisher account ca-pub-3814847756285692. Editorial control of the site, including which centres are ranked where and what the guides say, remains with the named editor on the about page.

AdSense runs in non-personalised (NPA) mode: ads are chosen based on the page content (which test centre, which guide topic) rather than your browsing history. The AdSense script loads on every page because it also hosts Google's consent dialog (the Google CMP). For EEA, UK, and Swiss visitors, ad creatives only start serving after you give consent on that dialog. If you reject, the AdSense script remains loaded but no ad creatives are served and no AdSense personalisation cookies are set. Visitors outside those regions see contextual ads in NPA mode by default and can opt out via the "Cookie settings" link in the footer. Full cookie list: Google cookie technologies.

Ad placements are visually distinct (they sit inside an iframe with a Google "AdChoices" corner badge) and do not look like editorial content.

Affiliate links

Where an external link on the site is an affiliate link, it is labelled inline near the link itself, for example with a small "Ad", "affiliate", or "partner" tag. We follow the ASA CAP Code requirement that paid-for content is identifiable as such before you click.

Affiliate links do not change the underlying data or rankings:

• Pass rate rankings are computed from the DVSA quarterly statistical release. No advertiser or affiliate partner can move a centre up or down a ranking.
• Guide articles cite verifiable gov.uk sources. The presence of an affiliate link in a guide does not change the editorial position of that guide.
• The same article is shown to every visitor regardless of which advertiser is bidding for the page's ad slot at any given moment.
• If a service we link to drops in quality or starts misleading users, the link is removed. We do not have minimum-volume commitments with any affiliate partner.

Driving school recommendations

PassRates.uk is a data and reference site, not a driving school comparison engine. We do not maintain an editorially-vetted list of recommended driving schools or instructors. When a driving school appears as a link, treat it as:

• Affiliate if it is labelled with an "Ad", "affiliate", or "partner" tag, in which case we earn a commission on purchases.
• Reference if it is not labelled, in which case the link is editorial (for example, citing the official register of Approved Driving Instructors on gov.uk) and no commission is involved.

Either way, we cannot verify the quality of any individual instructor at scale, and the appearance of a school on the site is not a guarantee or endorsement of teaching quality. Always check the instructor's ADI registration on the gov.uk Find Driving Schools service before booking.

Sponsored content (not accepted)

PassRates.uk does not accept sponsored articles, paid product placements inside guides, paid "mentions" of a specific school, or pay-for-ranking arrangements. If this ever changes, this page will be updated first and the relevant content will be clearly labelled "Sponsored" in line with ASA rules.

Editorial independence

The rankings and methodology on PassRates.uk are decided independently of any commercial relationship. Specifically:

• Centre rankings come directly from the DVSA quarterly statistical release and are computed in code. No human (advertiser, affiliate partner, editor) can edit a centre's position by hand.
• Methodology changes (for example, the minimum-test-volume floor used in rankings) are documented on the methodology page with a dated changelog.
• Guide articles are reviewed against gov.uk sources before publication. The Last reviewed date on each guide reflects the date of that human review.
• If a fact is wrong or out of date, you can email hello@passrates.uk and we fix it. Corrections do not depend on the advertiser of the affected page.

What we do not collect

PassRates.uk itself does not collect personal information from visitors. The site has no sign-up, no contact form that posts to our servers, no comment system, no newsletter, and no user-generated content. Server access logs (IP, user agent, URL, timestamp) are retained for at most 30 days for security and debugging.

Third-party services (Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Google AdSense) may collect data themselves, on their own terms, and only after you accept the cookie banner. Full detail is on the privacy policy.

Current partners

The site is in the early stages of monetisation. As affiliate partnerships are added, the active list will be published here with the partner name, the type of service, and the commission arrangement (where the partner's terms allow disclosure). If you would like to discuss a partnership that fits the editorial rules above, email hello@passrates.uk.

Contact and complaints

Questions about advertising, affiliate practices, or commercial relationships: hello@passrates.uk.

Privacy or data-protection questions: privacy@passrates.uk.

If you believe a piece of paid content on the site is not clearly labelled, please tell us and we will fix the labelling within one working week. You can also report a labelling concern to the UK Advertising Standards Authority at asa.org.uk.