Driving instructor suspension: your rights
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1. Overview
Your approved driving instructor (ADI) registration can be suspended if the ADI registrar thinks you pose a significant threat to public safety.
The ADI registrar can suspend you if they’re considering:
- taking you off the ADI register
- removing your trainee driving instructor licence
- refusing to extend your registration or trainee licence
You cannot get paid for giving driving lessons if you’re suspended.
Claiming compensation
You can claim compensation if you’ve been suspended but are not then taken off the register.
There are different rules for your ADI registration in Northern Ireland.
2. When you can be suspended
Your approved driving instructor (ADI) registration can be suspended if the ADI registrar thinks you pose a significant threat to public safety.
For example, if you:
- have been convicted of a sexual or violent offence
- are giving dangerous instruction that’s a major risk to the safety of your pupils and other road users
Telling you if you’re suspended
You’ll get a letter from the ADI registrar to tell you that your registration is suspended.
This will usually be at that same time that the registrar writes to tell you that they’re considering taking you off the register.
Challenging your suspension
You can use a judicial review to challenge the way in which the ADI registrar made the decision to suspend you.
The review only looks at whether the right procedures have been followed, rather than the decision itself. You can download the judicial review claim form and guidance notes.
You still have the right to appeal against the ADI registrar’s decision to remove you if you end up being taken off the register.
3. Compensation if you stay on the register
You can get compensation if your approved driving instructor (ADI) registration was suspended, but you were not taken off the ADI register.
This includes cases where:
- you win an appeal against the decision to take you off the register
- the registrar considers taking you off the register, but then ends the suspension and lets you stay on the register
- the registrar has not made a decision about taking you off the register within 75 days
What you can claim
You can claim compensation for income and non-income losses as a result of being suspended.
You can also claim for the cost of preparing your compensation application.
Income losses
‘Income losses’ are what you’d have got from giving driving lessons during the time you were suspended.
Non-income losses
‘Non-income losses’ are other losses you:
- can give a monetary value to
- incurred (within reason) while you were suspended
Examples of non-income losses include:
- any reasonable costs you needed to pay to prepare your compensation application
- the interest on a loan you had to take out as a result of the suspension
- the value of any damage that the suspension caused to your driving school business if you run one
4. How to claim compensation
Download the application form and send it, with evidence to support your claim, to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).
Approved Driving Instructor Registrar
Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency
1 Unity Square
Nottingham
NG2 1AY
When to claim
You must send your claim within 2 years of whichever of these dates is later:
- the date your suspension ended
- the date you were told you’d won your appeal against the approved driving instructor (ADI) registrar
You can claim outside of the 2 years in special situations.
Who can make the claim
You, as the ADI who was suspended, must sign the declaration with the application form.
You’re only allowed to sign the declaration on behalf of someone in limited situations, for example where the ADI has died and you’re allowed to represent them.
Evidence to support your claim
You should send documents that prove the basis of your claim, for example showing why you’ve based your claim for income losses on a certain hourly rate.
You’ll need to consider which documents will help DVSA decide that you’ve sent a valid claim, for example bank statements, payslips or a loan agreement.
5. Working out your losses
You’ll need to work out your income and non-income losses to send your claim.
Work out your income losses
You’ll need to work how much you’d have reasonably expected to earn during the time you were suspended.
This should be based on your income for a period that you can directly compare with, for example the same period the previous year.
You should base your claim on the period that best compares to the time you were suspended if you cannot directly compare with a previous year.
If your claim is for a different amount to what’s shown in the previous period, you should explain why, for example a major change in how many pupils you taught in the weeks just before you were suspended.
Work out your non-income losses
Your claim will need to make clear:
- how the non-income losses were incurred
- why they are reasonable costs
- how you have worked them out
You’ll need to send documents that clearly support your claim.
You can claim for the value of any damage that the suspension caused to your driving school business if you run one.
You can claim for the interest paid on a loan that you took out because your income stopped from being suspended.
Help working out your non-income losses
You can claim for the cost of preparing your compensation application. This can include the cost of getting expert help to work out how much your non-income losses are.
You’ll need to prove that the cost was reasonable, for example by showing that you did not pay a higher fee than usually applies.
6. The decision on your compensation claim
You’ll get a letter from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) within 28 days to either:
- tell you you’re being paid the amount you claimed for or a different amount
- ask for more information to prove your claim
- ask permission to go to a third party to prove your claim
- tell you the claim has not been allowed
When you’ll get your payment
You’ll get the payment within 45 days of DVSA telling you that you’re going to be paid.
You must give any new information you find that’s relevant to your claim within 6 years of getting your compensation. You must do this within 1 month of finding it.
Interim payments
You can get an interim payment:
- if you’re in special situations, for example significant financial hardship
- for part of the claim if it can be easily and quickly checked
If more information is needed
You must send any extra information DVSA needs within 28 days. This can be extended in special situations.
You must sign a statement to say the information is true to the best of your knowledge when you send it.
Not giving more information
You should tell DVSA in writing if you cannot give the extra information, and the reason why. DVSA will do whatever it can to process the claim if this happens.
Your claim can be delayed if the extra information is not available, or you do not give it.
The part of the claim that needs the extra information can be rejected.
After you’re asked for more information
DVSA will write to you within 28 days of either:
- getting the extra information
- the deadline for giving the extra information running out
The letter from DVSA will either:
- tell you you’re being paid the amount you claimed for or a different amount
- ask for more information to prove your claim
- tell you the claim has not been allowed
Appeal against the decision
You can appeal to the transport tribunal if you disagree with:
- the decision that you cannot get compensation
- the amount of compensation you’re going to get
You must appeal within 28 days of DVSA telling you its decision.
Decisions the tribunal can make
The tribunal can:
- refuse your appeal
- allow your appeal
- give its own decision on how much you get
- refer your case back to DVSA to reconsider
7. When the amount of compensation can change
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) can tell you that that it’s considering changing how much compensation you got. It can do this for up to 6 years after your original application.
DVSA can do this when:
- it finds new information
- it believes that the information you gave was wrong
- it looks like the original amount you got was given by mistake
If you think the amount was correct
You have 28 days to tell DVSA if you think that the compensation that you were given was correct. This time limit may be extended in special situations.
If the amount changes
You’ll need to repay the difference if the new amount is less than you originally got. DVSA will tell you how to do this.
DVSA will pay you the difference if the new amount is more than you originally got. You’ll get it within 45 days.
If you disagree with the new amount
You can appeal to the transport tribunal if you disagree with DVSA’s decision on the new amount.
You should make your appeal within 28 days of being told the new amount.
Decisions the tribunal can make
The tribunal can:
- refuse your appeal
- allow your appeal
- give its own decision on how much you get
- refer your case back to DVSA to reconsider