The Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) (Amendment) Regulations 2025

Statutory Instruments

2025 No. 792

POLICE

ROADS

The Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) (Amendment) Regulations 2025

Made

2nd July 2025

Laid before Parliament

3rd July 2025

Coming into force

24th July 2025

The Secretary of State makes these Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 2A(1A)(b), 3ZA(2A)(b), 192(1) and 195(7) of the Road Traffic Act 1988(1).

In accordance with section 195(2) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, the Secretary of State has consulted with representative organisations.

Citation, commencement and extent

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 and come into force on 24th July 2025.

(2) These Regulations extend to Great Britain.

Amendment of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) Regulations 2023

2.  The Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) Regulations 2023(2) are amended in accordance with regulations 3 to 7.

Amendment of regulation 3 (prescribed training provided in England and Wales)

3.  In regulation 3—

(a) in the heading, for “in England and Wales” substitute “by a provider licensed by the College of Policing”;

(b) in paragraph (b), for the words from “Police Sector Standards” to the end substitute “College of Policing Standard for Instructors or the College of Policing Standard for Trainers”.

Amendment of regulation 4 (required refresher training frequency for training provided in England and Wales)

4.  In the heading to regulation 4, for “in England and Wales” substitute “by a provider licensed by the College of Policing”.

Amendment of regulation 5 (prescribed training provided in Scotland)

5.  In the heading to regulation 5, for the word “in” substitute “by Police”.

Amendment of regulation 6 (required refresher training frequency for training provided in Scotland)

6.  In the heading to regulation 6, for the word “in” substitute “by Police”.

Amendment of the Schedule

7.  In the Schedule—

(a) In Table 1—

(i) in the first column, for “Standard response driving” substitute “Response driving”;

(ii) in the heading of the third column, for “students ratio” substitute “learners”;

(iii) in the fourth column, for “Two years”, in each place those words occur, substitute “Three years”;

(iv) in the entry “Tactical phase pursuit (TPaC)”, in the second column, for “Five days” substitute “One week”;

(v) in the entry “VIP protection motorcycle escorts”, in the second column, for “Five days” substitute “One week”;

(vi) in the entry “Escorting vehicles (abnormal loads etc)”—

(aa) in the third column, for “One to three” substitute “Three to six”;

(bb) in the fourth column, for “Unlimited validity” substitute “Five years”;

(vii) in the entry “Category B vans & passenger vehicles”—

(aa) in the second column, for “Four hours” substitute “One day”;

(bb) in the third column, for “One to two” substitute “One to three”;

(viii) in the entry “VIP protection driving”, in the third column, for “One to three” substitute “Three to six”;

(ix) omit the entry “Off-road motorcycling”;

(x) omit the entry “Off-road driving”;

(xi) omit the entry “Pre-surveillance motorcycle riding”.

(b) In Table 2—

(i) in the first column, for “Standard response driving” substitute “Response driving”;

(ii) in the second column, for “two years”, in each place those words occur, substitute “three years”;

(iii) in the heading of the fourth column, for “students ratio” substitute “learners”;

(iv) after the entry “VIP protection motorcycle escorts” insert—

Escorting vehicles (abnormal loads etc)

Every five years

One day

Three to six;

(v) in the entry “VIP protection driving”, in the fourth column, for “One to three” substitute “Three to six”;

(vi) omit the entry “Pre-surveillance motorcycle riding”.

Diana Johnson

Minister of State

Home Office

2nd July 2025

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023/185) (‘the 2023 Regulations’).

Regulations 3 and 4 amend the headings of Regulations 3 and 4 of the 2023 Regulations to clarify that prescribed training may be provided in England, Wales and Scotland by a provider licensed by the College of Policing provided the requirements of Regulation 3 of the 2023 Regulations are met. Regulation 3 also amends the sector training standards reference in Regulation 3 of the 2023 Regulations as they have been renamed.

Regulations 5 and 6 amend the headings of Regulations 5 and 6 of the 2023 Regulations to clarify that prescribed training may be provided in England, Wales and Scotland by Police Scotland provided the requirements of Regulation 5 of the 2023 Regulations are met.

Regulation 7 amends Table 1 and 2 of the Schedule to the 2023 Regulations to make various clarificatory changes to the headings of the Tables, including minor updates to various aspects of the courses and omits some courses.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private or voluntary sector or community bodies is foreseen.

(1)

1988 c. 52. Section 2A was inserted by section 1 of the Road Traffic Act 1991 (c. 40) and amended by section 143(1) and (3) of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (c. 9) and section 5 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (c. 32) (‘the 2022 Act’). Section 3ZA was inserted by section 30 of the Road Safety Act 2006 (c. 49) and amended by section 6 of the 2022 Act. The definition of “prescribed” in section 192(1) was amended by paragraphs 1 and 7 of Schedule 22 to the Crime and Courts Act 2013 (c. 22). There are other amendments to section 192(1) that are not relevant to this instrument. Section 195(7) was inserted by section 7 of the 2022 Act.

(2)

S.I. 2023/185.