Centre/high level stop lamp

i pass but advise if in dont pass and advise got dvla meeting to night edinburgh i am so lucky to spend a wednesday night at a dvla meeting

They are back on strike next week

this is one of those stupid ones that the ministry dropped on us years back.all stop lamps fitted and connected to the vehicle at time of test are obligatory and have to be tested and meet the pass criteria indeed it was one of our trick exam questions a couple of years back.however ones fitted over and above the minimum rqrmnt we have to be able to prove are connected which is impossible in 99.9% of cases without dismantling the unit concerned(and most of the time we are talking upper stoplamp)and guess what?we aint allowed to dismantle em during a test.confused?you will be.in such cases where we cant actually prove whether its connected/operating or not,you know,the above quoted 99.9 fooking percent?we are advised that we have to give the benefit of the doubt to the vehicle presenter and pass the vehicle.we are now pressing a button advising a non obligatory stoplamp when no such animal exists.it gets better,a lot of stoplamps have multiple light bulbs/sources.in the fairly common event that over half are inop it fails on that which in my experience is the most common upper stop fail.the guy then unplugs it/masks it off/removes it whatever and i then have to pass it,my personal opinion of an upper stoplamp working to some degree surely being better than absolutely fook all matters not the fat furry crack of a rats behind.to summarise if it works in some way shape or form then i can fail it.if it dont work at all i pass it.i refer you to my above comment about being confused.........strangely enough we dont have to prove the normal 2 you get on most cars are wired up and lets not even start on the ones with multiple bulbs.i once passed a motor with(theoretically)about a dozen rear stop lights of one sort or another with 2 working!

i try....

It'll allow you to fail many things that it shouldn't. It's down to you to know what you're doing.

Given the vast differences in understanding between testers and what decisions are actually made, I wonder how the stats actually show we are all making the correct decisions?

If central high level brake light doesn't illuminate, it's pass and advise.
If the said light has multiple bulbs, and less than half illuminate, then it's a fail!
If the said light has multiple bulbs, and more than half illuminate, then it's a pass and advise.