FOI 0498-2025/26- Licence categories

Request:

Around 2013 / 2014, a guidance document was published, written jointly by the Department for Education, the Department for Transport and Association of Chief Police Officers.  The guidance document stated that where a teacher is not obligated to drive a school minibus by their contract of employment, they may be classed as "volunteer" minibus drivers and therefore drive a 17 seat minibus on a Cat B licence, not requiring a Cat D1 licence

https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fpublications%2Fdriving-school-minibuses-advice-for-schools-and-local-authorities%2Fdriving-school-minibuses-advice-for-schools-and-local-authorities&data=05%7C02%7CCivilDisclosure%40northyorkshire.police.uk%7Cb59fb63774a34ff947a708dddb4f5446%7C2c84bc9193af476e9721cdad67cb3ead%7C0%7C0%7C638907855967128614%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=VV2XRa4vrvJ%2FQx6XSl2HSSG0NPMQghaGBRbbNnYMSCs%3D&reserved=0

"This guidance has been cleared by the Association of Chief Police Officers, who will promote awareness of this legislation amongst local traffic police officers."

Q1. Can you please confirm that this information was indeed passed to your force?

Q2. How would your Traffic Officers view anyone driving a 17 seat minibus on a Cat B licence as per the published guidance.  Would your force prosecute the driver for not holding a Cat D1 licence?

Response: 

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police.

I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police. 

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the following information to you.

Q1.  Yes, we did receive the detail.

Q2.  We would enforce the legal position as it stands, which is very clear, as per the guidance.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.