Clause 32 - Driving instruction
Road Safety Bill
3:56 pm
Ms Charlotte Atkins (Assistant Whip (funded by HM Treasury); Staffordshire Moorlands, Labour)
The short answer is that the clause is about quality of instruction. It replaces the current one-size-fits-all scheme for car driving instructors with provisions that allow the introduction of flexible and effective standards of insurance for different types of professional instructors. The new provision will allow registration to be extended to professional instructors for any class of motor vehicle. That applies to various circumstances, such as emergency response, remedial training for drivers and HGV training.
The system has been in place for 40 years for car driving instructors. All we are doing is extending it to other classes of instructor. Given that people pay something like £1,500 for HGV training, they need to be assured that that driving instruction is competent and of a good quality. It is a lot of money to pay out and we want to ensure that there are assurances for the HGV driver applicant, just as there would be if our sons and daughters were having driving instruction from a driving instructor in a car.
I am told that the target waiting time for HGV tests is three weeks. I assume that vehicle details have to be given because we have to be sure that it is an appropriate vehicle in which to take the test. Given that the system has been in place for car driving instructors for 40 years, it makes sense for the regulation to be extended to other classes of driving instructor to ensure that quality prevails.