Driving Test Reforms Planned

Driving instructors are to be given new powers under Government proposals

By Oli S / Thursday, 8 May 2008 / Loading comments

The driving test could be heading for its biggest shake-up since it was introduced in 1935.

Instructors could be given powers to order learners to have extra lessons before taking their tests.

The Government is planning that learners gain a ‘test readiness certificate’ signed by either the instructor or the ‘supervising driver’.

However the scheme has already come under fire from critics, who suggest that unscrupulous instructors could keep their pupils from taking their tests to make more money from lessons.

However the DfT has reportedly hit back at such claims by saying that learners will be able to pick the best instructors by using a new star-rating.

Also under the new proposals the instructor or ‘supervising driver’, who is most likely to be a parent, can sit in the back of the car and make notes as to what, if anything, the driver is doing wrong.

The DfT consultation paper, learning to Drive, is understood to also propose to stop publishing questions from the theory test.

This means that drivers could no longer memorise the questions before taking the test.

Some have suggested the new rules could lower insurance premiums for everyone.

However the Driving Instructors Association has said the star-rating system is unfair.

‘The Government has put electoral concerns ahead of road safety and shamefully failed to grasp the nettle in reducing the appalling level of teenage casualties on our roads.’