Motoring law for instructors

Band 3 is driving test, disabilities, and the law, and the law half is pure recall — figures, thresholds, and who carries the legal duty. Either you know Scotland's drink-drive limit is lower, or you guess. Learn it properly rather than to the minimum, though, because you will be teaching it: a parent asks whether their 11-year-old still needs a booster seat, and a vague answer costs credibility you will not easily win back.

This page is road traffic law; the law governing you as an instructor — Equality Act, GDPR, health and safety, safeguarding — is in the legal stuff. (All figures below are from gov.uk, reproduced under the Open Government Licence; sources linked above.)

Licences and provisional entitlement

Apply for a provisional at 15 years and 9 months; drive a car from 17.

Note the automatic restriction: a pupil who passes in an automatic holds a B auto licence and cannot legally drive a manual. Have that conversation at the first lesson, not the last.

Eyesight. A driver must read a number plate at 20 metres — about five parked cars — with a visual acuity of at least decimal 0.5 (6/12) on the Snellen scale using both eyes, glasses or lenses allowed, plus an adequate field of vision. Failing the check on test day fails the test instantly and the DVLA revokes the licence, so check it early, in daylight, on a clean plate.

Supervising a learner. Anyone supervising unpaid must be over 21, have held a full licence for 3 years (UK, EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein), and be qualified for that vehicle type — a manual licence to supervise in a manual. The car must show L plates; a learner may drive day or night. Motorways need an approved driving instructor and dual controls, never a parent — see the trainee badge.

Insurance

You must have motor insurance to drive on UK roads. Third party is the legal minimum — it covers injury or damage you cause to another person, vehicle, animal or property, and nothing of your own.

Driving uninsured means a fixed penalty of £300 and 6 penalty points, and the police may seize the vehicle and in some cases destroy it. In court it is an unlimited fine and disqualification; the code is IN10, 6 to 8 points for 4 years. Those six points alone end the licence of a driver in their first two years — "I was covered on my mum's policy" is career-shaped.

MOT and vehicle tax

A vehicle needs its first MOT on the third anniversary of registration (sooner for some types), then annually. Maximum fee: £54.85 for a car with up to eight passenger seats and £29.65 for a standard motorcycle, no VAT on top. Driving without a valid MOT carries a fine of up to £1,000, with exactly two exceptions — driving to or from somewhere to be repaired, and driving to a pre-arranged MOT test. Note that the offence gov.uk states is driving without a valid MOT; insurance is the separate duty that bites on a vehicle kept or used on a road.

On tax, the rule that catches people: you must tax the vehicle even when the rate is zero and you pay nothing. Exemption from paying is not exemption from taxing, and a vehicle kept off the road needs a SORN. All four documents belong in lessons — licence, insurance, MOT and tax are named in Role 1 of the national driving standard.

Drink driving

Scotland's limits are lower than the rest of the UK. Guaranteed Band 3 fodder.

Being in charge is an offence on its own — you need not be driving. Drink-driving endorsements (DR10, DR20, DR30) carry 3 to 11 points and stay on the record for 11 years, not four. High risk offenders do not get their licence back automatically when a ban ends, and a court ban anywhere in the UK bans you everywhere in it.

Drug driving

It is illegal to drive impaired by drugs, legal or illegal, and separately illegal to drive with certain illegal drugs above a specified limit whether or not you are impaired. Police use a field impairment assessment and roadside kits screening for cannabis and cocaine, then a blood or urine test at the station. Conviction means a ban of at least 1 year, an unlimited fine, up to 6 months in prison, and 11 years on the record.

The law also names prescription medicines: amphetamines, benzodiazepines (clonazepam, diazepam, flunitrazepam, lorazepam, oxazepam, temazepam), methadone and opioids (morphine, codeine, tramadol, fentanyl). A prescribed driver may drive legally even above the specified limit if they followed the prescriber's instructions and are not impaired — pupils treat "the doctor gave it to me" as a complete defence, and it is not.

Mobile phones

You must not hold and use any device capable of sending or receiving data — phone, sat nav, tablet — for any reason, online or offline: stopped at traffic lights, queuing in traffic, in flight mode, and supervising a learner driver. That last one is professional survival — in the passenger seat you are the supervisor, and the law applies as it does to a driver.

You may hold a device to call 999 or 112 in a genuine emergency where stopping is unsafe or impractical, when safely parked, to make a contactless payment in a stationary vehicle, or to park remotely. Hands-free is legal provided you never hold it — Bluetooth headset, voice control, dashboard holder, windscreen mount, built-in sat nav — and the device must not block your view of the road ahead.

Penalties: 6 penalty points and a £200 fine for holding and using a device; 3 to 6 points for not having a proper view of the road or proper control (CU80, as in the endorsement table below); in court, a ban and up to £1,000, or £2,500 for lorries and buses. A driver within 2 years of passing loses the licence outright.

Seat belts and child restraints

Wear a seat belt where one is fitted, and only one person per belted seat. The examinable part is who carries the duty.

The line is 14, and it is the driver's line. Every child under 14 is the driver's responsibility — including a 12- or 13-year-old, and including a child already over 135cm. You can be fined up to £500 if a child under 14 is not in the correct seat or not wearing a belt while you are driving. Only at 14 does the duty pass to the passenger.

This one is worth getting exactly right: it is a common exam trap, and the intuitive answer — that a tall or older child looks after themselves — is the wrong one.

Children need a correct car seat for their height or weight until 135cm tall or their 12th birthday, whichever comes first. Height-based seats stay rear-facing until over 15 months, and you must deactivate any front airbag before fitting a rear-facing seat in the front. A child may travel without one in a licensed taxi or minicab (3 and over, rear seat, adult belt; an under-3 may travel unbelted in the rear if no seat is provided); in minibuses and coaches where seats or belts are unavailable; on an unexpected, necessary, short journey (3 and over only); and where there is no room for a third car seat, where 3 and over use an adult belt in the back and an under-3 goes in a car seat in the front.

Belt exemptions include a driver reversing, or supervising a learner who is reversing; a delivery driver travelling no more than 50 metres between stops; a passenger checking a fault in a trade vehicle; a licensed taxi driver plying for hire or carrying passengers; and police, fire and rescue vehicles. A doctor may issue a Certificate of Exemption from Compulsory Seat Belt Wearing, kept in the vehicle. Pregnancy and disability are not exemptions.

Speed limits

Built-up areas default to 30mph in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland and 20mph in Wales. Street lighting is the signal that a built-up limit applies, unless signs say otherwise.

Marks go on towing — 50 on a single carriageway, not 60 — and on heavy goods vehicles in Scotland, lower again. Speeding starts at £100 and 3 penalty points; in court, fines reach £1,000, or £2,500 on a motorway. A speed awareness course needs police agreement, and none in the past 3 years.

Penalty points, totting up and the New Drivers Act

An endorsement stays on the driving record for 4 or 11 years depending on the offence — 11 years is broadly the drink and drug offences.

Totting up: 12 or more penalty points within 3 years means disqualification, with minimums of 6 months for a first ban, 12 months for a second within 3 years, and 2 years for a third. A ban of 56 days or more means applying for a new licence before driving again, and the court may order a retest or an extended test.

The New Drivers Act is the one your pupils need most. A licence is revoked if the driver reaches 6 or more points within 2 years of passing; they must then buy a new provisional licence and pass both the theory and practical tests again. Unexpired provisional points carry over on passing, so a pupil who qualifies with 3 already is one offence from halfway — and one handheld phone call is 6 points, the whole allowance in a single go.

Revising it

Band 3 needs 20 out of 25 on its own and cannot be averaged away — see what the Part 1 test covers. Drill the figures that come in pairs, because that is where questions get written: England and Wales against Scotland on alcohol, 4 years against 11 on endorsements, 12 points against 6, 30mph against 20mph in Wales, under 14 against 14 and over on belts. Then push past the exam — documents in the first session, the 6-point rule the day a pupil passes, phone law before the first independent drive. Terms are in the glossary; the reading list is in study materials.