Pass Plus is the DVSA post-test scheme: six modules, assessed by your instructor as you drive them, with no examiner and no pass or fail. It costs £260 here. Whether it pays for itself depends entirely on your own insurer, which is a phone call you should make before you book rather than after.
Pass Plus gets recommended more often than it gets explained. It is a real DVSA scheme with a fixed syllabus, it costs £260 here, and the reason people buy it is usually the insurance discount rather than the driving. That is the wrong way round, and this guide sets out why.
What Pass Plus Actually Is
It is a training scheme for drivers who have recently passed, delivered by approved driving instructors to a syllabus the DVSA sets. Because the syllabus is national, the six modules are the same wherever you take it. What differs between providers is the roads they can reach and what they charge.
Gov.uk describes it as a practical training course that takes at least 6 hours, taught by a Pass Plus registered approved driving instructor, and notes that it can be taken at any time although it should be most useful in the year after passing.
That last point is a useful filter on its own. The further you get from your test, the more of the syllabus you have already picked up by driving.
You need a full licence. It is post-test training, so there is no version of it for learners, and an instructor who offers you Pass Plus before your test has misunderstood the scheme. It is also not a qualification in the sense people imagine: it adds nothing to your licence entitlement and it is not a second test.
The Six Modules
Written down, the module names sound generic. Taught from an East London pick-up point they turn into specific roads.
| Module | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Town driving | The corridors you already know, now on your own insurance: bus lanes with time plates, box junctions, 20mph across most of Hackney, Tower Hamlets and the City |
| All-weather driving | Stopping distances in the wet, spray off a lorry on the A13, standing water in a dip after heavy rain |
| Rural roads | Starts with a drive out, because East London has none. Unmarked bends, mud on the tarmac, single-track sections with passing places |
| Night driving | Dazzle on unlit stretches of the A12, wet tarmac throwing back every light, pedestrians between parked cars |
| Dual carriageways | The A12, the A13 and the North Circular. Joining at the speed of traffic, early lane choice, reading exits in time |
| Motorways | The M11 from junction 4 at Woodford: gantries, keeping left, holding a gap at 70, and no hard shoulder |
The six modules are set by the DVSA and are the same nationally. The roads named are the ones used from East London pick-ups.
Two of those are worth flagging because they are the ones people have genuinely never done. Almost nobody has driven a motorway before Pass Plus, since motorways are not on the practical test. And rural roads catch out city-only drivers hardest, because everything arrives with less warning than it does in traffic.
There Is No Test, And That Is The Point
Pass Plus has no examiner. Your instructor assesses you against each module as you drive it, and either you meet the standard or you keep working on that module until you do. When all six are signed off, the instructor submits the paperwork and the DVSA issues the certificate.
People find this suspicious, as though a course you cannot fail cannot be worth anything. The logic is the other way round.
Nothing is being certified about you except that you have been trained on six road types to a set standard, so there is no incentive to drive to please an examiner and no reason to hide the thing you are worst at. If night driving is the module that exposes a problem, that is the module to spend the time on.
The Insurance Question, Answered Honestly
Here is the part most pages are vague about.
Some insurers give a discount to Pass Plus holders. Many do not. Among those that do, the size varies, and there is no national rate attached to the certificate. No driving school can tell you what your policy will do, because no driving school sets your premium.
Gov.uk is careful about this too, and the wording is worth reading exactly: completing the course may help you get a car insurance discount. May, not will. If the official page will not promise it, treat anyone who does with suspicion.
So do this before booking, not after:
- Ring your insurer, or the one you are about to buy from, and ask directly whether they recognise Pass Plus and what it is worth on your policy
- Get the answer for your circumstances: your car, your postcode, your age, not a general statement about their policies
- Run a quote both ways on a comparison site if you are shopping around, one with the certificate and one without
- Compare the saving against £260, remembering that the saving usually applies for one year rather than forever
If the answer is nothing, the training is still training and the six modules still cover six real road types. What has gone is the money argument, and you should decide on the driving alone.
What The £260 Covers
The whole course, all six modules, with no per-hour extras. That includes the car and the fuel, the run out to the lanes for the rural module and onto the M11 for the motorway one, pick-up and drop-off anywhere in the coverage area, and the paperwork submitted so the DVSA can issue the certificate.
It does not cover an insurance discount, which is not the school's to give. It does not include tuition beyond the course either. If the night module turns up something that needs three more hours, those hours are a separate booking and it is better to be told that at the time than to find it on an invoice.
Six hours of driving is the minimum, and it does not have to be six consecutive hours. It usually should not be, because the last two hours of a six hour day are worth less than the first two.
Most people take it across two or three sessions, and the modules set the shape: night driving has to happen after dark, and rural roads and motorways both start with a drive out of the city, so they pair naturally into one longer session.
When Pass Plus Is The Wrong Choice
It is a poor fit in more cases than the marketing suggests.
- You already drive every day and feel settled. Six months of commuting teaches most of what the town and dual carriageway modules teach, and it teaches it for free.
- Your insurer offers nothing for it. Not a reason never to train, but a reason not to buy this particular product for this particular reason.
- One specific thing worries you. If it is only motorways, or only night driving, two targeted hours cost a good deal less than £260 and every minute goes on the gap.
- You have not passed your test yet. A full licence is a condition of the scheme.
- Someone else told you to book it. A parent or an employer suggesting it is not the same as anyone having checked what is in it or what it is worth on your policy.
In most of those cases a couple of targeted hours, or refresher hours at £41 if it has been a while since you drove, will do more for you than a certificate will.
Pass Plus Or Standalone Motorway Lessons
These overlap and there is no point pretending otherwise. One of the six modules is motorways, and motorway lessons are also sold on their own, priced on enquiry because the drive to the first slip road differs by postcode.
The difference is scope. A motorway lesson is one thing done thoroughly: joining, lane discipline, gantries, coming off, breaking down where there is no hard shoulder. Pass Plus is the full post-test syllabus with those hours inside it and a certificate at the end.
If motorways are the only gap, book motorway lessons and stop there. If you want the whole syllabus, Pass Plus is the cheaper route to the motorway hours because they are included in the £260. Booking standalone lessons first and the course afterwards means paying twice for the same stretch of the M11.
How To Decide In Ten Minutes
Two questions settle it for most people. Can you name more than one road type you have never driven properly, and does your insurer recognise the certificate?
Two yeses make Pass Plus the sensible buy. Two noes make it the wrong one, and you are better off spending on the specific thing or on nothing at all. One of each is a judgement call, and it usually comes down to whether you would actually go and drive a motorway on your own if you did not book something.
Be honest with yourself on that last question. Plenty of people intend to drive out to the M11 one weekend and never do, and a year later the gap is exactly where it was. If a booking is the only thing that makes the driving happen, the booking has a value that does not show up in the insurance arithmetic.
Whatever you decide, the first month after a pass has a shape worth following, and it is set out in what to do in the first month after you pass. If you have not passed yet, start with the complete guide to learning to drive in East London instead.
The course is £260 for all six modules with nothing charged per hour on top, and the motorway hours are inside that price rather than added to it.
Book Pass PlusPass Plus questions worth asking before you book
How much is Pass Plus?
£260 for the whole course here, covering all six modules with nothing charged per hour on top. That includes the car, the fuel, the run out to the rural lanes and onto the M11, pick-up and drop-off, and the paperwork.
Is there a test at the end of Pass Plus?
No. There is no examiner and no pass or fail. Your instructor assesses you against each module as you drive it, and if you are not at the standard yet you keep working on that module until you are. When all six are signed off, the DVSA issues the certificate.
Will Pass Plus reduce my insurance?
It depends entirely on your insurer. Some offer a discount to Pass Plus holders, many offer nothing, and where a discount exists the amount varies. There is no national rate. Check with your own insurer before booking rather than after.
How long does the course take?
Six hours of driving is the minimum, usually spread across two or three sessions. Night driving has to run after dark, so the time of year sets part of the timetable: an early evening start in December, a much later one in June.
Can I do only the motorway module?
Not as Pass Plus, because the certificate requires all six modules. Motorway lessons are sold separately and priced on enquiry, so if motorways are the only gap that is the thing to book.
Do I need a full licence to take Pass Plus?
Yes. It is post-test training and a full licence is a condition of the scheme. If you have not passed yet, lessons rather than a course are where the money should go.
If you have checked with your insurer and you want the full syllabus, the course runs across two or three sessions at times that suit you. If the answer from your insurer was nothing, decide on the driving alone.
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Published 1 September 2026. Prices and DVSA figures are checked when this page is revised. If anything here has changed, ring us and we will confirm it.