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

Leeds driving test centres

DVSA’s three Leeds-area car test centres are Colton Mill in the east of the city, Fearnville in the north-east near Oakwood, and Horsforth in the north-west. Horsforth is the busiest, with 12,466 tests in 2025 to 2026, more than the other two combined.

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 Leeds figures show

• Leeds has better availability than most cities. All three centres reached 10% free slots inside the 24-week window in August 2026: Horsforth at 13.2 weeks, Colton Mill at 15.4 and Fearnville at 22.6. In London, Manchester and Glasgow almost every centre was at 24.
• Fewer long waits. Only 9.5% of Horsforth’s August 2026 candidates and 10.8% at Colton Mill had waited more than 21 weeks, compared with half of candidates at some London and Manchester centres.
• Pass rates are close to average. The three centres sit within about 2 percentage points of each other and of the national rate. Yorkshire and the Humber passed 52.6% of tests in August 2026, against 52.1% for Great Britain.
• The region’s median wait was 10 weeks in August 2026, the third-shortest of the nine English regions.

Our pass rates by test centre and driving test waiting times tools cover every centre, and our guide to what DVSA pass-rate statistics can and cannot tell you explains why a small difference in pass rate says little on its own.

Clean air rules in Leeds

Leeds does not charge cars to drive in the city. It does not appear on GOV.UK’s list of cities with Clean Air Zones. Neighbouring Bradford does, but it is a Class C zone, which covers buses, taxis, lorries and vans, not private cars.

Lesson prices in Leeds

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.

In DVSA’s October 2025 regional breakdown, 30.4% of Yorkshire and the Humber instructors charged £35 or less for an hour, 51.9% charged £36 to £40 and 17.8% charged £41 or more. Getting a place may be the harder part: only 38.4% of instructors in the region said they had room for new pupils, and 52.8% had a waiting list.

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 Leeds, ask whether the instructor teaches around Horsforth, Colton Mill or Fearnville, and whether they have space now or run a waiting list.

More detail: how to choose a good driving instructor.

Driving schools and instructors in Leeds

These driving schools appear in public business listings for Leeds 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)
• 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.