PUBLISHING PASS RATES (AGAIN)
There are new people in charge at DSA; but not much else has changed. At the recent ADI groups meeting the people at DSA once again stated that they can’t see any reason why ADI pass rates could not be published.
They obviously have not bothered to look back at DSA’s previous disastrous attempts at publishing ADI information which breached the data protection regulations.
The regulations are very important and anyone storing data must abide by them at all times. Failure to do so could cause damage to a business or individual, in which case DSA could be sued. The Information Commissioners Office which looks after data protection matters requires data controllers (those who store and use data) to only keep data which accurate, not excessive and up to date.
One of the biggest breaches DSA made was with the Pass Plus website, which used to contain a list of all the PP registered instructors. Someone at the DSA thought it was a good idea not only to publish the full addresses of the ADI’s, but also the personal registration number, and all without the permission of the ADI concerned. Following several complaints from a North West local ADI association, which DSA initially ignored, it was eventually forced to scrap the whole Pass Plus site for numerous breaches the data protection regulations. Some of the entries on the site listed ADI’s who had been deceased for years, and one entry even showed the details of an ex ADI who was then a DSA examiner!
If DSA were ever able to publish pass rates it would have to be 100% accurate or face possible compensation claims. And up to now its record of storing accurate information has been abysmal.
DSA also failed in what was probably the first step to publishing pass rates several years ago when it started sending out test analysis reports to all ADI’s. These annual reports showed the number of tests the ADI had, and a list of the driver, serious and dangerous faults from all those tests, although no details about the candidate, date and time of test or even which test centre was included, which made it impossible to verify if the data was correct. It also showed the pass rate as a percentage. However, these reports contained many errors, including the number of tests in some cases, and as DSA couldn’t check which tests the data related to, it had to abandon the idea.