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DSA refutes quota claim

The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) has hit back at claims made in Driving magazine that it is 'putting lives at risk by allowing dangerous drivers on to the roads to fulfill driving test pass quotas'. The article was based on comments made by former examiner Pete Murray, who claims he was sacked by the DSA for failing too many candidates

DSA's head of public relations Paula Thorpe issued the following statement in response to the claim, which was covered in this newsfeed last week:-

"At The Driving Standards Agency we do not use quotas and we do not look to maintain pass rates at particular test centres. The only thing driving examiners are looking to achieve each day, week and month is the national standard we set for assessing a learner driver during the driving test.

"In order to ensure that every one of the 1.3 million young people who pay us each year to conduct a driving test is given a fair assessment, we have a series of checks in place to make sure that the standard set by the chief driving examiner is the one being applied. One of these checks involves looking more closely at examiners whose pass rate varies by 10 per cent or more from colleagues at the same test centre. This 10 per cent variance rule is confirmed by the National Audit Office as a reasonable measure.

"Mr Murray's pass rate was consistently very much lower than that of his colleagues, which naturally lead us to spend a considerable amount of time supervising his tests and offering him additional training and coaching. It was during these supervised tests that Mr Murray applied the national standard and his pass rate returned to the expected level, but when he was alone it appeared that he was judging his candidates more harshly than more than a million other learner drivers had to endure and his pass rate fell again. Clearly, this was unfair for the candidates and unacceptable to us.

"Although there is an urban myth in existence about driving test quotas, it has never been true. The sad fact is that many learner drivers come forward for a test before they are ready to be on the road. From a road safety point of view we have been running a campaign since 2004 to improve the standard of candidates who come forward for test because the pass rate is low at 43 per cent. We have sent information to candidates about the top 10 reasons for failing a test and offered advice on being fully prepared.

"A new element to the campaign is a DVD that we are now sending to all theory test candidates giving advice on preparing for both tests, and being a safe driver. This is the only way that we are looking to have a positive effect on pass rates.

"We make it clear to examiner staff that allowing personal prejudices and opinions to cloud their ability to deliver a test to the DSA standard is wrong. Clearly any examiner who does, and applies his or her own criteria for driving tests, would be contributing to variances between them and their colleagues who are applying the correct standard.

"We would openly encourage any examiner who feels pressured by anyone at DSA to work to a set of figures to use the whistle blowing procedure to report this, as working to quotas is not part of DSA practice, and goes against everything we have worked for and that has been achieved in 70 years of driving tests."

For further information contact Paula Thorpe, Paula.Thorpe@dsa.gsi.gov.uk.