Driving instructors will gain powers to force learners to have extra lessons before taking their tests, under the biggest reform of the driver education system since the driving test was introduced in 1935.

The Government is proposing that learners should have to obtain a “test readiness certificate” signed by the instructor or “supervising driver”.

The Department for Transport admitted yesterday that there was a risk that unscrupulous instructors could delay signing the certificate in order to charge for extra lessons.

Learners will, however, be able to tell which instructors in their areas have the highest pass rates and best qualifications under a new star-rating system.

The instructor or “supervising driver”, who may be a parent, will sit in the rear passenger seat during the test and listen to any feedback given by the examiner. This is intended to help instructors and parents to understand the areas in which their pupils need more training.

The Driving Instructors Association said that the star-rating system was “blatantly unfair” and accused the Government of putting lives at risk by rejecting proposals from road safety groups for a 12-month minimum learning period and posttest restrictions on young drivers.

A spokesman for the association said: “The Government has put electoral concerns ahead of road safety and shamefully failed to grasp the nettle in reducing the appalling level of teenage casualties on our roads.” The on-road test may be split into two parts and will cover a much broader range of driving skills, including assessing a candidate’s “situational awareness” and ability to drive safely on their own.

The DfT consultation paper, entitled Learning to Drive, also proposes to stop publishing the questions for the theory test, meaning that candidates would no longer be able to memorise the answers without understanding the principles.

The theory test will also include several more searching questions based on photographs of common situations which drivers encounter.

The on-road test is likely to be divided into a 20-minute examination focusing on manoeuvres, such as the three-point turn, and a 30-minute test of general driving ability. Drivers will only have resit the part they fail, unlike at present when failure means retaking the whole on-road test.

The situational awareness test will involve the examiner directing the candidate to a road containing a number of hazards and then asking them to pull over and explain how they would deal with the risks. The candidate would be required to respond safely to sudden events.

There will be an assessment of “independent driving”. Rather than giving directions, the examiner will ask the candidate to navigate to a landmark or well-signposted location. This is designed to test a candidate’s ability to drive alone with no help, including looking for road signs and, if necessary, turning around after taking the wrong route.

When testing a manoeuvre, instructors will allow the candidate to choose when and where to do it safely. For the three-point turn the instructor may say “turn the car around somewhere in this road”.

Jim Fitzpatrick, the Road Safety Minister, said that parents would still be able to teach their children but, in practice, almost all candidates would need to pay for lessons to have a reasonable chance of passing the test.

He said that the dangers posed by young drivers needed to be addressed urgently, but admitted that the reforms to training and testing would take at least two years to introduce.

Testing times

16% - increase in deaths among drivers aged 16-19 since 1991

300 - annual deaths of drivers with less than two years’ experience

£1,500 - average cost of learning to drive

52 - average number of lessons

44% - pass rate for the on-road test

67% - pass rate for theory test

£1,200 - average premium for new male driver (£800 for female)

Source: DfT