Leeds residents hoping to settle in the UK took the British citizenship test more than 2,000 times last year.
But of those 2,037 tests taken in 2019/20, 480 ended in failure. That's a pass rate of just above three-quarters (76 per cent).
And according to figures obtained under Freedom of Information, Leeds candidates who took the test in 2019/20 fared slightly worse than those who took it the previous year, when the pass rate was 78 per cent.
Passing the citizenship test, also known as the “Life in the UK” test, is one of the criteria for becoming a British citizen or settling in the UK.
You must also have spent a certain period of time in the country, pass an English language test, and have no criminal convictions.
The test includes questions on a range of aspects of British culture and history, has 24 questions that must be completed within 45 minutes, and the applicant needs to get at least 75 per cent of questions right to pass.
People who fail can take the test as many times as they like, but each attempt to pass the test costs £50.
Across the UK, 160,124 tests were taken in 2019/20, with 19 per cent of people failing, or 30,833 failed tests in total.
The test was taken fewer times in the last financial year than it was in 2018/19, when it was taken 170,986 times. That year, the failure rate was 18 per cent.
In July this year, a group of historians signed an open letter in an academic journal calling for an immediate official review of the history chapter of the test.
The academics have accused the government of misleading applicants about several aspects of British history.
According to the historians, the official handbook published by the Home Office is “fundamentally misleading and in places demonstrably false.”
For example, they say the UK's role in the international slave trade is downplayed and for the most part, the end of the British Empire was not an “orderly transition” like the handbook says.
In fact - the letter says - decolonization was often a “violent process”.
When asked if the government assessed whether passing the Life in the UK citizenship test has effects on promoting UK values and improving integration, immigration minister Kevin Foster had to admit that no assessments were made.
However, he said the Home Office is currently considering the case for reviewing the Life in the UK handbook.
