This is the joint response of The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport (PACTS) to the Department for Transport’s call for evidence on opportunities for changes to the driver licensing regime. It has been produced following consultation with RoSPA’s National Road Safety Committee and PACTS’ members. RoSPA has also surveyed its RoSPA and ScORSA members as part of the formulation of this response.
The consultation seeks views on potential opportunities to “improve the driving licensing regime”. These include whether to grant drivers who have a category B car licence (the licence held by the vast majority of car drivers) additional entitlement to category C1 (7.5 tonnes) goods vehicle entitlement; and whether to grant drivers who have a category B licence entitlement to a minibus category D1 licence. It is clear that these changes are predominantly designed to increase the range of vehicles that a B licence holder may drive, rather than to improve safety.
In addition to other ideas on licence categories, there are proposals to “raise the standards” of HGV instruction and improve pass rates and to permit a person who has held an HGV category C licence for two years to drive PCVs for maintenance and repair purposes.
Further information regarding this CfE can be found on DfT’s website here.
