Robin Cummins, who oversees the driving tests of 1.5m learners each year as the chief instructor for the Driving Standards Agency, claims men display more natural ability. Not only are they better at control and manoeuvring, they also need less tuition.

Women need as much as 14 hours more tuition on average to pass their driving test and have a test pass rate of just 40%, six per cent behind men's at 46%.

While women take an average of 2.12 tests to pass, men need 1.87. “I’m not saying anything that isn’t in the figures,” says Cummins. “Of course there are plenty of women who are excellent drivers and plenty of men who are terrible, but overall it does seem to be that men can pick up the basic skills more quickly. With young men there seems to be more natural ability. Some females — though not all — take a lot more teaching.”

For both sexes the pass rate is highest for 17-year-olds (56% for women and 60% for men) and lowest for those 50 and over (29% for both men and women). Reversing is the most common problem for women failing the test.

The Advertising Standards Authority has rejected complaints that a poster claiming women were better drivers than men was untrue after an insurance company presented evidence to back the statement. It accepted women in general had fewer accidents and had made fewer claims. But a study by another insurance firm showed a women was, on average, more likely to have an accident and her claims would be higher.

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