SELF-EMPLOYED driving instructors can be removed immediately from the Register of Approved Driving Instructors following the Royal Assent of a new law.

The new law – the Driving Instruction (Suspension and Exemption Powers) Act 2008-09 – allows the Registrar to suspend an instructor’s registration, while at the same time informing the instructor of his or her removal from the register.

The key aim is to close a loophole that allowed less scrupulous driving instructors to continue practising for a period of up to 45 days between notification of removal and actual removal from the Registrar – if the instructor poses a public threat.

In one case it allowed an instructor, convicted of a sexual offence against a pupil, to continue instructing during the de-regestration process. The new law would prevent this in the future.

Quicker de-registration on the statute books