Driving lessons in Birmingham: test centres, pass rates and waits

Birmingham’s driving test centres

DVSA lists six car test centres under the Birmingham name. Garretts Green is by far the busiest, with 22,480 tests in 2025 to 2026, followed by Kingstanding and South Yardley. Cocks Moors is much smaller: it ran 486 tests over the year, and DVSA’s availability table lists an earlier "Cocks Moors Woods" centre as closed. Nearby Wednesbury, in the Black Country, had a 35.0% pass rate, the second-lowest in Great Britain after Wolverhampton (34.3%).

How to read the table. The pass rate covers every car test at that centre from April 2025 to March 2026 (DVSA table DRT122A). The median wait is DVSA’s own measure for tests taken in August 2026: half of those candidates waited less than this between booking and the test. "Weeks to 10%+ free slots" is how far ahead the booking calendar first had at least one in ten weekly appointments still free. DVSA only releases tests 24 weeks ahead, so a figure of 24 means that point was not reached inside the booking window. Many people still find earlier dates through cancellations.

What the Birmingham figures show

• The region has the lowest pass rate in England. DVSA’s regional table shows the West Midlands passed 46.5% of car tests in August 2026, the lowest of the English regions, against 52.1% for Great Britain.
• Big gaps between centres. Shirley (56.6%) passed nearly 14 percentage points more candidates than South Yardley (42.8%) across the year. Garretts Green, the busiest centre, was at 44.4%.
• Waits vary from weeks to months. Cocks Moors (3.1 weeks) and Garretts Green (7 weeks) had the shortest August 2026 medians, while Kingstanding (23 weeks) and Shirley (16.2) were the longest. The regional median was 12.1 weeks.
• Cocks Moors is the exception on availability. It reached 10% free slots at 18.8 weeks, while the other five were at 23 weeks or more, and 92.8% of its August candidates had booked within 7 weeks.

Use our pass rates by test centre and driving test waiting times tools for the latest centre figures. A high pass rate is not a reason on its own to travel: what DVSA pass-rate statistics can and cannot tell you.

Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone

Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone covers the city centre inside the A4540 Middleway and runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. GOV.UK lists it as a Class D zone, which means cars are included. No vehicle is banned, but a car that does not meet the standard (generally Euro 6 diesel or Euro 4 petrol) pays a daily fee for each calendar day it drives in the zone. The council says you can pay up to 6 days before, on the day, or up to 6 days after. None of the six test centres is inside the Middleway, but city-centre lessons and practice in a family car can be.

Lesson prices in Birmingham

There is no official price list for lessons. The best national evidence is DVSA’s own survey of instructors, run in October 2025 with 3,448 replies: £36 to £40 was the most common price for a one-hour lesson, charged by 50.3% of ADIs, and 22.5% charged £41 to £45. The RAC’s July 2026 cost guide gives a wider working range of £35 to £50 an hour. The fixed DVSA fees are the same everywhere: £62 for a weekday practical test, £75 on evenings, weekends and bank holidays, and £23 for the theory test. Our UK driving lesson costs guide sets these out with sources.

The West Midlands is one of the cheaper regions in DVSA’s survey. In October 2025, 37.0% of West Midlands instructors charged £35 or less for an hour, the highest share of any region, and only 14.1% charged £41 or more. Just under half (47.9%) said they had room for new pupils.

How to choose an instructor

GOV.UK is clear on the legal basics: anyone you pay to teach you to drive must be a qualified approved driving instructor (ADI) or a trainee driving instructor. Instructors must show a badge in the windscreen: green for a qualified ADI and pink for a trainee. Instructors set their own prices, and there is no minimum or maximum. Our guide to ADI and PDI qualifications explains what the two badges mean in practice.

Questions worth asking before you pay for a block of lessons:

• Badge and status. Is the instructor a fully qualified ADI or a trainee? Ask to see the badge on the first lesson.
• Which test centre do they know? Pick an instructor who regularly teaches around the centre you plan to use, since you can only practise on public roads and routes vary.
• Manual or automatic. Check the car matches the licence you want. An automatic test gives you an automatic-only licence.
• Lesson length and price. Is the quoted price for 60 minutes, 90 minutes or two hours, and what happens to prepaid hours if you stop?
• Using the car for the test. Ask what they charge for the test itself and the warm-up lesson before it.
• Test booking. DVSA rules limit who can book a test on your behalf. Read who is allowed to book a driving test before paying anyone who offers to find you an earlier slot.

In Birmingham, ask which of the six centres the instructor uses most. Garretts Green, Kingstanding and South Yardley have very different waits, and it helps if your instructor knows the roads around the one you book.

More detail: how to choose a good driving instructor.

Driving schools and instructors in Birmingham

These driving schools appear in public business listings for Birmingham and have their own websites. We have not checked their instructors, prices or cars, and they have not paid to appear.

You can also compare driving lesson options or ask for lesson prices from instructors who cover your area.

Sources

• Car driving test pass rates by gender and month: test centres, table DRT122A (gov.uk, DVSA, April 2025 to March 2026)
• Car driving test waiting times and availability by driving test centre, table DRT122F (gov.uk, DVSA, data to August 2026)
• Car driving test waiting times and availability by country and region, table DRT121G (gov.uk, DVSA, data to August 2026)
• Driving test appointments: release dates and finding earlier tests (gov.uk)
• Working as a driving instructor survey: 2025 results (gov.uk, DVSA)
• Driving lessons and learning to drive (gov.uk)
• Driving test costs (gov.uk)
• Driving in a Clean Air Zone (gov.uk)
• A clean air zone for Birmingham (birmingham.gov.uk)
• Cost of learning to drive in 2026 (rac.co.uk)

Last checked: September 2026. DVSA updates waiting-time figures monthly and pass rates yearly, so check the live tools linked above before you book.

Compare Driving Instructors is a comparison and referral service, not a driving school. We do not give lessons, and a listing here is not a recommendation.