FT/D/2025/0435 - [2025] UKFTT 01267 (GRC)

Relevant law

To qualify as an Approved Driving Instructor ("ADI") an applicant is required to pass a qualifying examination. This is in 3 parts namely part 1 being a written examination, the driving ability and fitness test in part 2 and the instructional ability and fitness test in part 3. Three attempts are allowed at each part. The whole examination (parts 1-3 inclusive) must be completed within two years of passing part 1. If this is not done then the whole examination has to be retaken.

A person may only provide paid driving instruction if his name is on the Register (section 123(1) of the Act) or if he holds a licence by section 129(1) of the Act and in accordance with The Motor Cars (Driving Instruction) Regulations 2005. A Section 129(1) licence may be granted by the Registrar once an applicant has passed part 2. This is to enable:-

"...a person to acquire practical experience in giving instruction in driving motor cars with a view to undergoing such part of the examination referred to in section 125(3)(a) as consists of a practical test of ability and fitness to instruct."

The Registrar may revoke a licence if the trainee instructor has ceased to be a fit and proper person ("FPP"). The FPP test was considered in Harris -v- Registrar of Approved Driving Instructors [2010] EWCA Civ 808 in which Richards LJ held at para 30:-

".....I do not accept that the scope of the "fit and proper person" condition is as narrow as Mr Leviseur contended. Of course, a central question is an applicant's fitness to be a driving instructor – that he has the requisite instructional ability and driving ability and that he does not pose a risk in any respect to his pupils or other users of the road. The "fit and proper person" condition has obvious relevance to that issue, though the more technical aspects are covered by other, more specific conditions relating to tests, driving licence and the like. But the condition is not simply that the applicant is a fit and proper person to be a driving instructor; it is that he is a fit and proper person to have his name entered in the register. Registration carries with it an official seal of approval: those registered are known as "Driving Standards Agency Approved Driving Instructors."