Consultation outcome

Automated passenger services: permitting scheme

• From: Department for Transport and Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles
• Published: 21 July 2025
• Last updated: 23 April 2026 — See all updates

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Automated passenger services: permitting scheme – government response

PDF, 579 KB, 59 pages

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Detail of outcome

Government received 169 responses to the consultation for the automated passenger services (APS) permitting scheme. Respondents supported the following statutory instrument (SI) proposals:

• renewals process
• variation
• suspension and withdrawal procedures
• maximum validity period of 5 years
• the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) as the permit outcome review body
• disclosure and use of information

Following review of the responses, one change has been made to the APS SI. This increases the scope of data sharing to allow wider non‑safety‑related information, such as isolation points, to be shared with emergency responders where they need it to manage incidents involving a permitted APS.

See the Automated Vehicles (Permits for Automated Passenger Services) Regulations 2026 for more information.

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Original consultation

Summary

Seeks views on the proposed automated passenger services statutory instrument (SI) to support the deployment of commercial self-driving pilots.

This consultation ran from
12:01am on 21 July 2025 to 11:59pm on 28 September 2025

Consultation description

The Automated Vehicles (AV) Act 2024 will introduce the automated passenger services (APS) permitting scheme, a targeted regulatory framework for automated passenger services.

The new scheme is intended to be flexible and avoid the various challenges of applying existing legislation. Introducing this scheme is intended to provide greater regulatory confidence for businesses to deploy services and build an understanding of viable commercial models.

See this consultation in Welsh.

Documents

Automated passenger services (APS) permitting scheme consultation

HTML

Draft statutory instrument: The Automated Vehicles (Permits for Automated Passenger Services) Regulations 2026 (PDF)

PDF, 180 KB, 7 pages

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Published 21 July 2025

Last updated 23 April 2026 + show all updates

1. 23 April 2026

   Automated passenger services: permitting scheme – government response added.

2. 21 July 2025

   First published.