Consultation outcome

Simplifying driving licence upgrade and motorcycle test rules

From:
Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency
Published
9 February 2021
Last updated
14 July 2021 — See all updates

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

This consultation has concluded

Download the full outcome

Simplifying driving licence upgrade and motorcycle test rules: response to consultation

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Detail of outcome

We received 1,276 responses to the consultation.

The government has decided to introduce the proposals set out in the consultation to:

  • change the way some driving licences are upgraded from automatic to manual entitlement when a driver passes certain driving tests
  • reduce the size of motorcycles that can be used for the A2 category motorcycle test, as measured by the cubic capacity of their engine

We’ll need to amend regulations to do this, which we’ll seek to do as soon as possible.

Original consultation

Summary

Proposed changes to driving licence upgrades if you take a test in an automatic vehicle, and reducing the motorcycle engine capacity needed for some tests.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency is seeking views on proposals to:

  • allow drivers who pass a driving test in certain categories of automatic vehicles to drive a manual vehicle in that category, as long as they can already drive a manual vehicle in a different category
  • reduce the minimum motorcycle engine capacity that’s needed for a standard motorcycle (subcategory A2) test from 395cc to 245cc

The categories of vehicles the first proposal affects are:

  • car and trailers (B+E)
  • medium-sized lorries (C1), and medium-sized lorries towing a trailer (C1+E)
  • minibuses (D1), and minibuses towing a trailer (D1+E)

Documents

Simplifying driving licence upgrade and motorcycle test rules

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Published 9 February 2021
Last updated 14 July 2021 + show all updates

  1. Published the response to the consultation.

  2. First published.