These Regulations amend the Motor Cars (Driving Instruction) Regulations 2005 (the “2005 Regulations”) as part of the implementation of section 8 of, and Parts 2 and 3 of Schedule 2 to, the Deregulation Act 2015 (c. XX).
The Deregulation Act 2015 removes the separate category of disabled driving instructors and removes the automatic requirement for persons with certain disabilities to complete an Emergency Control Assessment (an “ECA”). Instead the ECA can potentially apply to all driving instructors but may only be required where the Registrar has reasonable grounds for believing that the instructor, or person applying to be an instructor, would be unable to take control of the car in an emergency.
The amendments made to the 2005 Regulations by regulation 2 of these Regulations make provision:
to prescribe a single form of licence and a single form of certificate of registration for all driving instructors, to replace the separate forms of licences and certificates that were previously issued to instructors and trainee instructors with disabilities (regulation 2(8), (11), (12), (14) and (15));
to prescribe the class of vehicle which a person must use if they are taking an ECA (regulation 2(9));
to prescribe the time in which a person must take an ECA if they are required by the Registrar to do so (regulation 2(9));
to prescribe as a condition for holding a trainee driving instructor licence that the trainee instructor must take an ECA if they are required by the Registrar to do so (regulation 2(7));
to prescribe as a condition for holding a trainee driving instructor licence that the trainee instructor will not give instruction in circumstances where they are reasonably likely to need to take emergency control of a vehicle unless they are able to do so (regulation 2(7)); and
to prescribe time periods for which a person must wait between failing an ECA and making a further attempt at passing an ECA (regulation 2(9)).
Regulation 3 gives effect to the Schedule to these Regulations which makes transitional provisions – including provision that old form trainee licences and certificates held by persons registered as disabled driving instructors or disabled trainee instructors will remain valid until such a time as they would otherwise have expired or been revoked.
No separate impact assessment has been prepared for these Regulations. However, a full impact assessment of the effect of the policy of removing the separate category of disabled driving instructors is available from DVSA, The Axis Building, 112 Upper Parliament Street, Nottingham NG1 6LP and accompanies the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside this instrument on www.legislation.gov.uk.