Sharon Rawles v Registrar for Approved Driving Instructors

This is an appeal against a decision of the Registrar of Approved Driving Instructors (‘the Registrar’) made on 22 April 2025 to refuse to grant the Appellant a third trainee licence.

The Registrar did not attend. I was satisfied that the Registrar had been given notice of the hearing and that it was in the interests of justice to proceed in their absence.

The grant of a trainee licence enables applicants to provide instruction for payment before they are qualified.

A trainee licence may be granted in the circumstances set out in s. 129 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (‘the Act’) and the Motor Cars (Driving Instruction) Regulations 2005.

A licence under section 129(1) of the Act is granted:

In order to qualify as an Approved Driving Instructor, applicants must pass the Qualifying Examination. This comprises: the written examination (‘Part 1’); the driving ability and fitness test (‘Part 2’); and the instructional ability and fitness test (‘Part 3’).

Three attempts are permitted at each part. The whole examination must be completed within 2 years of passing Part 1, failing which the whole examination has to be retaken.

If a candidate has passed Part 2, they may be granted a trainee licence. The grant of a trainee licence enables applicants to provide instruction for payment before they are qualified. It is possible to qualify as an Approved Driving Instructor without having held a trainee licence.

The powers of the Tribunal in determining this appeal are set out in s.131 of the Act. The Tribunal may make such order as it thinks fit.

When making its Decision, the Tribunal stands in the shoes of the Registrar and takes a fresh decision on the evidence available to it, giving appropriate weight to the Registrar’s decision as the person tasked by Parliament with making such decisions. The burden of proof in satisfying the Tribunal that the Registrar’s decision was wrong rests with the Appellant.

The Appellant passed Part 1 of the Qualifying Examination on 8 November 2023 and passed Part 2 on 15 February 2024. The Appellant applied for two trainee licences which were granted and were valid from 4 March 2024 to 3 March 2025

On 19 February 2025, the Appellant applied for a third trainee licence. As the Appellant applied before the licence expired, this means that, at the date of the hearing, the appellant had been the beneficiary of a trainee licence for 1 year and over 7 months.

The Appellant cancelled a Part 3 exam booked for 24 September 2024. The DVSA cancelled a Part 3 exam booked for 9 January 2025. The Appellant took and failed her first attempt at the Part 3 exams on 25 March 2025 and failed the second attempt on 6 August 2025.

The Appellant booked her third attempt on 6 August 2025 and was placed ‘on hold’. She is still waiting for a date for that test.

The reasons for the Registrar’s decision, in summary, were that 12 months is considered to be a more than adequate period of time to gain sufficient experience to pass Part 3 and no evidence had been provided of lost training time.

The grounds of appeal are, in summary:

The Registrar, in his response, states:

I read and took account of a bundle of documents and I heard from the Appellant. I have incorporated the Appellant’s submissions and evidence into my discussion and conclusions below.

I accept the Regulator’s submission that the trainee license is not a substitute for taking and passing the test. It is not the purpose of trainee licences to keep renewing them until all attempts at passing Part 3 have been taken.

It is right that the Appellant has had the benefit of a training licence of 1 year and 7 months, which should be ample time to prepare for the third test. Further, the Appellant candidly accepted that she had cancelled one test, and that will have contributed to the delay in reaching her third attempt. I take that into account.

However, there are exceptional circumstances in this case as follows.

First, the availability of examiners at the relevant test centre in early 2025 meant a Part 3 exam that she booked on 30 September 2025 did not take place until 25 March 2025, nearly 6 months later. That is a very significant delay. Further, the Appellant booked her third attempt and was placed on hold on 6 August 2025. She still has not even obtained a date for that test over 3 months later. That is also a very significant delay. Once a date is provided there is likely, based on the Appellant’s previous experience, to be another three months delay before the test.

Whilst I accept that the Appellant can continue to study and practice and is able to continue to gain experience and take the test without a trainee licence, the Appellant eloquently explained in the hearing the limitations of that approach in terms of the importance of ‘on the job’ training, the value of teaching a wide variety and a large number of pupils and of the value of having had recent ‘fresh’ experience of that wide variety of regular paying pupils in the run up to a test that assesses a wide variety of challenging competencies.

Second, I accept that the Appellant’s performance in the test in March 2025 was affected by bad news that she received the night before. I accept that she felt unable to cancel the test due to the extreme delays in rebooking a test, and the fact that the clock was ticking on her trainee licences. This contributed to the fact that she has still not passed the test.

Although the Appellant has cancelled one test, she has otherwise acted promptly in booking her tests and the very significant delays I describe above were outside her control.

Having weighed all those matters in the balance, the Appellant has persuaded me that it is appropriate in these particular circumstances to allow the appeal.

The Registrar’s decision is set aside and the appeal is allowed.

The Appellant is granted a third trainee licence with effect from the date of this decision.