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10.31 am
Mr. Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con): I, too, congratulate the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife (Willie Rennie) on introducing this Bill. It does what private Members’ Bills do best—it addresses a specific, narrowly defined wrong with a clearly defined remedy. I also want to pay tribute to his brave constituent, Lesley Anne. I should perhaps declare an interest in that I have a son who is going through his driving lessons. As he is a large, rugby playing medical student, I do not think that he is especially vulnerable, but I have another son who has just passed his test and another who will come up for it very shortly, so I am heavily focused on driving tests.
It was quite right for the hon. Gentleman to remind us what an important profession driving instruction is. The 40,000 driving instructors in this country have played a large role in the way in which successive Governments have pushed down the accident rate. Having been responsible for a fatal accident on the roads, I take a close interest in these matters. The way in which the death toll on the roads in this country goes steadily down and down, year on year, is very encouraging. Indeed, it compares favourably with that in many comparable countries.
The hon. Gentleman has produced a very sensible, balanced little measure. He has sensibly built in a 75-day time limit, so that an unfortunate driver against whom a malicious or unfair allegation has been made is clear about the period involved. He has also, quite rightly, included the appeal and compensation mechanisms.
Clearly, this is too small an issue for long-term statistics to be collected, but it would be interesting if, after the first couple of years of the Bill’s operation, a small written statement was issued to say how often its terms had been applied and whether there had been any successful appeals. There is a slight danger, thinking back to what the hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) said about the fact that driving lessons are almost always one-on-one, that if word got around, a disgruntled pupil, for example, might use the measure in completely the wrong way against a driving instructor. I hope that that will not happen but it will be interesting to see, after the first year or two, what the statistics show and whether there have been a number of successful appeals, because we might need to fine-tune the legislation.
Willie Rennie: The Bill was designed to ensure that we do not establish a separate sphere of prosecution. Only if the registrar is already considering removing an instructor from the register can they suspend, and only when the case is serious. Nobody has free range to complain about the instructors. The Bill is quite tightly defined, so there is no extra sphere of discipline.
Mr. Brazier:
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, and I take his point. That was what I meant when I said that the Bill looks extremely watertight and well balanced. It would be interesting, none the
less, to see the figures after the first or second year of its operation. If we found that there had been several successful appeals, we might wonder whether the provisions needed a bit more fine-tuning.
The bottom line is that thanks to a courageous young lady—it takes a lot of courage to come forward and talk about such a deeply unpleasant episode in public—and to the energies of her Member of Parliament, we have this good piece of legislation before us. I am delighted, on behalf of the official Opposition, to support it.
10.36 am
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Paul Clark): I am delighted to be here in support of the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife (Willie Rennie). I thank him for introducing the Bill and congratulate him on his considerable efforts over recent years in pursuing the underlying issue that the Bill seeks to address. He has certainly shown a commendable tenacity.
I shall pick up on one or two comments that have been made. The hon. Gentleman talked about the responsibility of a parent when children are taking their driving lessons and working towards a test to give them the independence held by some 34 million people in our country who have full driving licences. We want to know that our children are in safe hands and the hands of people whom we trust.
The vast majority of our driving instructors who are fully approved, and those who are training, are doing an excellent job in accordance with all the right codes of practice. Each and every year we ask our driving instructors to undertake that training. Some 800,000 people passed their driving test in 2007-08, which is about 44 per cent. of those who took it.
The hon. Member for Canterbury (Mr. Brazier) recognised the great achievement in this country of the reduction in the number of road casualties. I am delighted to say that the figures published yesterday show that Britain and Sweden are joint first place among the major nations for having the safest roads. However, some 2,500 people are still killed on our roads every year. We need that figure to fall still further. It has already come down by 14 per cent. since last year and by 40 per cent. over the past 10 years, but we need to go much further. Our driving instructors are part of ensuring that we have the highest standards for training new drivers-to-be.
It is quite ironic that today I have the privilege of supporting this Bill about driving instructors and ensuring that people like Lesley Anne Steele are protected, and yesterday I was announcing road safety statistics. I want to put on the record my thanks to Steve, the driving instructor from Gillingham, for his forthcoming patience with my daughter, who took her first driving lesson yesterday. I congratulate him on his nerves of steel, and apologise to my daughter for that comment. That brings home—I probably should not go home tonight; I suspect that I will be in trouble, and Rachel will kill me—the fact that we put trust in people in such professions, and in many other walks of life. I am grateful for the work that they do.
Simon Hughes: I do not want to add to the Minister’s woes, but out of interest, can he tell us whether it is his and the Department’s assessment that we have enough driving instructors across the UK? Do we have fewer than we need? What has been the trend in the number of people coming into that registered occupation?
Paul Clark: There about 45,000 driving instructors. The Driving Standards Agency monitors numbers and requirements. The average learner takes 52 hours of formal lessons in training; that is 50 per cent. more than 15 years ago. There has been an increase in the number of driving instructors. Of course, part of the role of the DSA is to monitor whether there is enough provision in parts of the country where there is demand. The average spent by individuals on learning to drive is about £1,500.
I know that the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife would want me to put on record that we are delighted to be joined by the former Minister with responsibility for driving standards, my hon. Friend the Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who assisted the hon. Gentleman a great deal with the Bill and the process of introducing it.
Simon Hughes: The Minister was kind enough to answer my question generally, but perhaps by the end of the debate he could give specific figures. If there are vacancies—that is, if more driving instructors would be useful, and would speed things up and increase the chance for people to get into the system and have lessons—I am keen that the public should know about it, because lots of people are looking for jobs. It is a good job to do and, for people with the relevant skill, it is a very suitable profession.
Paul Clark: I certainly take those comments on board. If I can give the hon. Gentleman any specific figures before the end of the debate, I will. Undoubtedly, in times of difficulty in other areas of employment, and in a recession, the number of people considering such a route increases, so he is absolutely right.
I think that I am right to say that without the change in law that the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife has resolutely pursued for several years, there would be a continuing risk to learner drivers from the very people in whom they put their trust; we have put that on the record. We have an opportunity to amend current legislation to provide further protection for the public, and learner drivers in particular. We must take that opportunity to ensure that others do not have to endure the emotional distress experienced by his constituent, Lesley Anne Steele. In Committee, and in proceedings on the Floor of the House on the money resolution, I put on record my thanks to the hon. Gentleman’s constituent for making her complaint and taking it forward, and for raising and highlighting the issues, no doubt at great personal expense. I do so again now.
The issue is not just theoretical, as we have said. It arises from the clear case that the hon. Gentleman outlined, and his constituent’s resolve to ensure that we close the loophole in legislation. The problem that the Bill seeks to address centres on the inability of the registrar of approved driving instructors—the profession’s regulator, and an official of the Driving Standards Agency—to prevent registered or licensed driving instructors from providing paid tuition with immediate effect, when
that instructor represents a significant threat to the safety of the public. I will talk about “significant threat” later, because that will help to clarify one or two of the points raised about whether the provision could be used maliciously, as can happen in the teaching profession, where complaints are often made. That was raised in Committee.
The issue is not new, as the legislation dealing with the registration of driving instructors and their removal from the register has been on the statute book for many years. Part V of the Road Traffic Act 1988 contains the key provisions relating to the registration of persons who wish to provide paid instruction in the driving of motor vehicles. To provide such instruction lawfully, a person’s name must be on the register maintained by the registrar, or that person must be a trainee instructor to whom the registrar has issued a licence.
It might help if I briefly remind the House of the legislative framework covering the approval and registration of those who wish to give driving instruction for payment. As I mentioned, part V of the 1988 Act is the main primary legislation. It was amended in part by the Transport Act 2000 and will be further amended by as yet uncommenced provisions in the Road Safety Act 2006, to which I will return shortly. The relevant secondary legislation made under the 1988 Act is the Motor Cars (Driving Instruction) Regulations 2005. As hon. Members would expect, those regulations specify the detailed requirements applying to trainee driving instructors and approved driving instructors.
For trainee instructors, the regulations specify the process that must be completed in order to join the register, the fees for the tests taken and other important matters, such as the time limits that apply. However, as I will explain, simply passing the qualifying tests does not guarantee trainee instructors admission to the register. For approved driving instructors, the regulations clearly identify the requirements that apply to them on joining the register and thereafter.
As the House would expect, gaining entry to the register is not a trivial achievement. The standards are deliberately set high to reflect the responsibility that driving instructors will have. Approved driving instructors instil into learner drivers life-saving skills, principally the skill of how to drive safely on our increasingly busy roads. Total annual road mileage is 10 times greater than it was in 1950. Indeed, it has increased by 14 per cent. since 1997, so we recognise the even greater demands on our driving instructors these days.
The exams are in three parts: there is a theory test, a practical test of ability and fitness to drive, and a practical test of ability and fitness to instruct. The subject matter of the first two parts—the theory and practical driving tests—is similar to that covered in the test taken by learner drivers, but the standards expected of those taking those two parts are significantly higher than those that apply to learner drivers. The part 1 examination—the theory test—consists of two sections. There is a set of multiple choice questions and a hazard perception test. The multiple choice part of the driving instructor test consists of 100 questions, of which a candidate must pass 85. That compares to the multiple choice element of the test taken by learners, which consists of 50 questions, of which 43 must be passed.
The hazard perception test has a maximum possible mark of 75. For the driving instructor test, the pass mark is 57; that compares with 44 for learner drivers. The ability and fitness to drive test for driving instructors—the part 2 test—lasts an hour, whereas for learner drivers there is about half an hour of on-road driving. Potential driving instructors are allowed only six driving faults, whereas learners are allowed 15. To add further rigour to the process, there are restrictions on the number of attempts that can be made in some of the tests, and time limits also apply. For example, the application for the test assessing ability and fitness to instruct must be made within two years of passing the theory test. Also, no more than three attempts may be made at the test assessing ability and fitness to instruct.
The pass rate for the instructors theory test is 51 per cent. For the instructors practical driving test it is 50 per cent., and for the final part it is only 30 per cent. The overall effect is a rigorous selection process that ensures that only competent instructors gain admission to the register. The fees are £111 for the instructors theory test, and £111 each for the instructors practical driving test and the test of ability to give instruction.
Some trainee instructors will never have been in a situation where they have had to provide formal tuition of any kind. For them, the test of ability and fitness to instruct can be quite daunting. Not only do they have to demonstrate knowledge of driving theory and practice, but they have to satisfy the Driving Standards Agency examiner that they are competent in giving instruction. Knowing the subject is one thing, but being able to impart it to pupils is at least equally important. Many of us know that someone may be expert in a given subject, but being able to impart that knowledge to others, possibly as a teacher, is not second nature. Imparting knowledge and high standards of driving to others is a skill in itself.
The trainee licence scheme helps trainee instructors to prepare for the test of ability and fitness to instruct. Provided that trainees have passed the first two parts of the qualifying examination—the instructors theory and practical driving tests—they can apply to the registrar for a licence that permits them to give paid driving instruction without being on the register. Effectively, they are exempted from the requirement to be registered in order to give paid instruction. If granted, the licence lasts for six months but can be renewed in certain circumstances, such as where illness has prevented the trainee from taking the test of instructional ability during the period of validity of the licence. A condition of the trainee licence is that the holder must be supervised by an approved driving instructor during the currency of the licence. The cost of the trainee licence is currently £140.
The hon. Gentleman indicated that the Bill was not originally intended to cover trainee instructors. Uncommenced provisions in the Road Safety Act 2006 will repeal the trainee licence provisions in the Road Traffic Act 1988 and replace them with an exemption arrangement, to be made by statutory instrument. That will enable the DSA to introduce greater flexibility into the qualifying process for entry to the register, which will benefit trainee instructors while retaining the ability of the registrar to permit trainee instructors to undertake paid instruction and so gain experience in preparation for taking the test of instructional ability.
I have outlined the technical requirements, but there is another important requirement. Both approved driving instructors and trainee instructors must be “fit and proper” persons either for their names to be entered in the register or for them to be granted a trainee licence. The phrase “fit and proper” is not defined in the legislation, and the legislation is probably the better as a consequence. It allows the registrar to make a judgment as to an individual’s suitability to be an approved driving instructor or trainee instructor, based on their character and conduct. That is vital when we consider that approved driving instructors and licensed trainee instructors give instruction, often to young people under the age of 18, on a one-to- one basis, in an enclosed environment, and possibly in a remote location. For that reason, the conduct expected of driving instructors must be exemplary.
The checking process was discussed in Committee, and the hon. Gentleman today mentioned criminal records. It is the applicant’s criminal record in which the registrar takes most interest. Where a potential instructor has been found guilty of a serious offence, particularly one of a sexual or violent nature, it is most unlikely that they will be considered suitable to be admitted to the register or to be granted a trainee licence.
The registrar considers each application on its merits, taking account of the individual circumstances. An applicant, for example, who was found guilty 30 years ago of committing an assault at the age of 18, and who has a clean record since, may be considered more suitable than someone who committed a sexual assault in the past two years. It will depend on the situation and the person in each case. The registrar must take account of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. It would be wrong to prevent people from becoming an instructor simply because they had a criminal conviction, but where he has a significant concern about the suitability of an individual to become an instructor, the registrar will refuse the application.
The hon. Member for Canterbury requested a review of the way in which that discretion had been used. I am sure we can take that on board, as part of the DSA reporting process. All hon. Members want to ensure that we have the highest standards and catch individuals likely to offend as instructors. We all want the legislation to deliver what we expect from it.
Barry Gardiner (Brent, North) (Lab): In relation to the other point made by the hon. Member for Canterbury (Mr. Brazier), will my hon. Friend confirm that suspension will occur only after conviction, not on the basis of an accusation by a member of the public? To state that would clarify matters.
Paul Clark: I thank my hon. Friend for that question. As has been said, the provision can be used only in conjunction with the steps that will be taken to revoke a licence and along the lines indicated. We want to avoid a repetition of the effects of malicious rumours or gossip on members of other professions, and we have ensured that the provision can be used only in conjunction with a process that was already going to be undertaken by the registrar.
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