The number of applicants passing their driver's licence test in WA has steadily fallen over the past 10 years but authorities deny accusations the system is "broken" and unfairly penalising young people.

Key points: Pass rates for licence applications in WA have been steadily falling since 2010

Pass rates for licence applications in WA have been steadily falling since 2010 The system is being criticised for putting undue pressure on young people

The system is being criticised for putting undue pressure on young people But probationary driver injuries and deaths have also fallen drastically, from 376 in 2008 to 52 in 2017

The average pass rate for the practical driving assessment (PDA) so far this year is 43 per cent, compared with 56 per cent in 2010, despite today's novice drivers being more experienced than ever before.

In 2017 the WA Government made changes to the testing regime that were intended to better prepare learner drivers, including increasing the minimum number of supervised driving hours required before sitting the assessment, from 25 hours to 50.

High school student Cormac Taylor, 17, recently gained his driver's licence on the fourth attempt.

He estimated the combination of multiple test fees ($90 per assessment) and months of driving lessons ($60 per hour) would have cost thousands of dollars.

"We all drive around in cars that are probably not as expensive as what it costs to get your licence in the first place," he said.

"It is quite frustrating."

Martin Collis, a driving instructor of 17 years, said it was common for students to fail twice, but he had also heard of people failing the test up to nine times.

Martin Collis has been a driving instructor for 17 years and says he's noticed a sharp rise in student failure rates over the past 18 months. ( ABC News: Rhiannon Shine )

"There is a lot of frustration obviously with the fact that parents and students have to pay extra every time they fail," he said.

"But then people will also say that it is better to have a safer driver on the road."

Mr Collis said it was not uncommon for people to travel great distances to sit their test at certain centres.

Cormac Taylor says the cost of taking multiple tests and driving lessons adds up. ( ABC News: Rhiannon Shine )

"Sometimes you will hear from friends that a certain centre is easy to pass so they will go there, and a certain place is hard to pass so they won't go there," he said.

"I have also heard stories about people who have failed in the metropolitan area going to country towns like Northam or York and try and do their test there."

Liberal MP Peter Katsambanis, who recently a chaired a committee which looked at the difficulties associated with obtaining a driver's licence in WA, said he believed the system was "broken".

WA Liberal MP Peter Katsambanis says the system is putting enormous pressure on young people. ( ABC News: Eliza Laschon )

"You would expect that where you force drivers to do 25 extra hours before they can go and sit their test, that they would pass the test more frequently than in the past," he said.

"Instead the failure rates have gone up.

"It is putting enormous pressure on young people, enormous pressure on their families, and in many cases it is denying young people a licence so they can go out and seek work or get to university.

"The government and the Department of Transport have to look at this."

But while the failure rate is increasing, there has been a corresponding more than 80 per cent fall in serious crashes involving P-Plate drivers.

There were 376 probationary drivers killed or seriously injured in 2008 compared with 52 in 2017.

Department of Transport acting general manager of driver and vehicle services Joan Brierley said this was the more important statistic.

Ms Brierley says the department is collecting data on what causes licence applicants to fail. ( ABC News: Rhiannon Shine )

"We measure our success on the reduction in killed or serious injuries in probationary drivers," she said.

"For us it does not really matter how many drivers are passing or failing, it is how many safe drivers are we putting on the roads."

The parliamentary committee also found significant variations in the PDA pass rates between different testing locations, indicating an inconsistent application of assessment standards.

Driver's licence pass rates vary around Perth Location Pass per cent (2018) Cannington 57 City West 40 Joondalup 36 Kelmscott 49 Mandurah 47 Midland 48 Mirrabooka 36 Rockingham 54 Success 39 Willagee 36

"Sometimes you have a greater chance of passing at one centre than another centre," Mr Katsambanis said.

"This is a lottery; this is luck of the draw. That brings the whole system into question. What we are asking for is a level playing field."

Ms Brierley said this was not the case and it was more likely that centres in locations with a high number of recent immigrants had higher failure rates.

"It is really about the people presenting themselves for tests," she said.

"Some of our centres have a greater density of new arrivals. They have a lot of driving experience overseas but when converting their licence they tend to have very bad habits."

Ms Brierley said the DoT was taking steps to further improve consistency across centres, including by rolling out the iAssess tablets last year, which record interactions between the candidate and the driver assessor.

"It collects data about why candidates are failing," she said.

"We're starting to use that to build in education programs to work with driving instructors on the areas where we know candidates are failing."

Top reasons candidates fail their test include not stopping at stop signs and cross walks, speeding, failing to give way and not checking blind spots.