Rochdale and Bury driving test pass rates rise sharply

Rochdale and Bury recorded the sharpest rises in car driving test pass rates among Greater Manchester's test centres in the year to March 2026. Rochdale's pass rate rose from 41.2% to 48.3%, and Bury's from 40.3% to 46.3%, according to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency's (DVSA) official test-centre figures.

What has changed

The figures come from DVSA table DRT122A, which records practical car test results by test centre, gender and month. Summing the monthly rows for each centre gives the annual totals:

• Rochdale: 5,584 passes from 11,563 tests in 2025/26 (48.3%), up from 4,036 passes from 9,790 tests in 2024/25 (41.2%) — a rise of 7.1 percentage points.
• Bury: 3,255 passes from 7,024 tests in 2025/26 (46.3%), up from 3,275 passes from 8,136 tests in 2024/25 (40.3%) — a rise of 6.0 percentage points.

A local report of the figures describes Rochdale and Bury as recording the largest increases across Greater Manchester's centres. The DVSA table confirms the size of both rises; the centre-by-centre comparison in this post rests on the DVSA figures themselves.

What it means for learners

A rising pass rate at a centre does not change what the test itself requires. The practical test still assesses the same safe, independent driving, and a pass still depends on the individual learner's readiness on the day — not on the centre's previous results. What the figures do show is that, in the year to March 2026, a higher share of tests taken at Rochdale and Bury ended in a pass than in the year before.

Learners should also note what these figures count: tests, including repeat attempts, rather than individual learners. A centre's pass rate is therefore not the same as the chance that any one learner passes first time.

What to do now

• Book only through the official GOV.UK driving test booking service, and only when your instructor agrees you are ready.
• Judge readiness on consistent, independent driving across the full range of skills — not on a centre's pass rate.
• If you are choosing where to take your test, remember you can normally only move a booking to one of your three nearest centres, or back to your original centre, under the current booking rules.

Sources

• DVSA, "Driving test and theory test data: cars" — table DRT122A (car driving test pass rates by gender and month: test centres), via https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/driving-test-and-theory-test-data-cars — checked 1 November 2026. Figures above are the annual totals summed from the table's monthly centre rows for 2024/25 and 2025/26.
• Roch Valley Radio, "Rochdale and Bury record biggest driving test pass rate increases in Greater Manchester", published 1 November 2026, https://www.rochvalleyradio.com/news-features/5/traffic-and-travel/1269/rochdale-and-bury-record-biggest-driving-test-pass-rate-increases-in-greater-manchester — second source / tip; the figures in this post were matched to the DVSA table, not taken from this report alone.