Economic note 1020: Prescribed driving training (accessible)
Published 3 July 2025
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Title of regulatory proposal: The Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
Lead Department/Agency: Home Office
Expected date of implementation: 24 July 2025
Origin: Domestic
Date: 30/06/2025
Lead Departmental Contact: tracy.catling1@homeoffice.gov.uk
Departmental Assessment: Green
Rationale for intervention, objectives and intended effects:
The 2025 Regulations will amend the Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) (Amendment) Regulations 2023. The amendments are necessary to provide clarity to police forces to improve the interoperability of those forces that operate in Great Britain, to reduce trainer to officer ratios, to improve group training and to reduce the regularity of refresher courses to reduce costs.
Policy options (including alternatives to regulation)
Option 0: ‘Do nothing’
Leave the Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) Regulations 2023 unamended.
Option 1
To amend the 2023 Regulations to resolve interoperability issues between England, Wales and Scotland and reflect recent changes to the curriculum.
This is the government’s preferred option.
Costs and benefit summary
Familiarisation costs are estimated to be £7,000 in year 1. Adjusting the ratio of instructors to police officers is estimated to cost £0.8 million. Staff time savings from increased refresher periods is estimated to be £5.7million (PV). The NPSV is estimated to be £4.9 million. Non-monetised benefits include the reduction in training courses and reduced travel costs. Non-monetised costs include cost of changing Van training from four hours to one day.
Risks
The main risks are the absence of data on travel costs and the impact the of volume changes to the overall expenditure of training due to a change in the number of training courses.
| Total cost (£m PV) | Transition Cost (£m Constant) | Cost to Business (£m PV) |
|---|---|---|
| 0.82 | 0.01 | 0 |
| Total benefit (£m PV) | NPSV (£m PV) | BNPV (£m PV) | EANDCB (£m PV) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.7 | 4.9 | 0 | 0 |
| Price base year | PV base year | Appraisal period (years) | Transition period (years) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 2025/26 | 10 | 0 |
Departmental sign-off (SCS): Samantha Newsham
Date: 25/06/25
Chief Economist sign-off: Jehangir Ullah
Date: 27/06/25
Better Regulation Unit sign-off: Emma Kirk
Date: 27/06/25
Evidence base
A. Policy objectives and intended effects
1. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022[footnote 1] amended the Road Traffic Act 1988 to provide a new test for assessing whether a police officer or designated person has committed the offences of dangerous and careless driving.
2. When determining whether an offence has been committed, a police officer’s (or other designated person’s) standard of driving, is compared to that of a competent and careful police officer who has undertaken the same prescribed training.
3. This means that an officer’s enhanced training and skills can be considered during any post-incident proceedings. For the new comparison to apply the police officer must have been driving for police purposes and to have undertaken the prescribed training.
4. The Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) Regulations 2023 (referred to as ‘the 2023 Regulations’)[footnote 2] prescribe the minimum standards for police driver training for the purposes of ensuring that the new comparison applies. The 2023 Regulations allow those involved in post incident proceedings following a road traffic incident involving a police driver, including the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), to determine whether the police officer had undertaken the prescribed training.
5. The 2023 Regulations also make clear the Chief Officers’ responsibilities for police driver training provisions. The 2023 Regulations set out the high-level requirements for all of the training, such as the need to follow the National Decision Model[footnote 3] and the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice[footnote 4] (APP) in sections 1 to 7, and then list the detailed requirements for each police driver training course in the schedule[footnote 5] (Tables 1 and 2).
6. The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and College of Policing have requested some changes to the regulations as currently drafted. These are outlined below.
7. Currently the 2023 Regulations refer to “policing sector standards” throughout. The current terminology used to describe these standards has shifted to “College of Policing standards”. It is clearly more consistent and preferable for the regulations to reflect the current terminology.
8. There is a lack of clarity in the 2023 Regulations as to the territorial extent of providers of prescribed training. It is desirable to clarify that providers of prescribed police driver training – that is, providers licensed by the College of Policing, or Police Scotland – are able to provide such training across England, Wales and Scotland.
9. This is intended to assuage concerns about the ability of the non-Home Office police forces (such as British Transport Police (BTP), Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC), the National Crime Agency (NCA), and Ministry of Defence Police), who have a national remit, to carry out police driver training throughout England, Wales and Scotland. It is beneficial for interoperability between police forces if officers are familiar with the roads and terrain either side of the England and Scotland border without unnecessary cost burdens from officers needing to travel to the other side of the border to receive the police driver training.
10. The schedule to the 2023 Regulations sets out detailed information on police driver training including the names of courses, length of training, student to instructor ratio and refresher training requirements. Since the 2023 Regulations have been in place NPCC have continually monitored the impact of their implementation on operational police driving and have requested some changes.
B. Policy options considered, including alternatives to regulation
Option 0 - Do-nothing
11. To leave the Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) Regulations 2023 unamended.
Option 1: To amend the Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) Regulations 2023
12. The amendments are:
a. amend the following wording from: “the instructor or trainer has met, respectively, the Police Sector Standards for Training for Instructors or Police Sector Standard for Training for trainers” to: “the instructor or trainer has met, respectively, the College of Policing Standard for Instructors or College of Policing Standard for Trainers”.
b. change the wording in the headings of Regulations 3, 4, 5 and 6 to remove the misleading references to geography (“England and Wales” and “Scotland”). These headings have no operative or legal effect and were interpreted as suggesting the existence of territorial limitations to prescribed training when in fact none existed.
c. To update the police driver training schedule to accurately reflect changes to the College of Policing Police Driver Training Curriculum (see tables 1 and 2 below)
13. Option 1 is the government’s preferred option.
Table 1 – The Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) Regulations 2023: summary of proposed changes to the schedule
| Course title | Proposed change | Reason for change |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Response Driving from schedule table 1 | Current Title: Standard Response Driving Proposed Title: Response Driving |
Remove the word ‘standard’ to simplify the title of this course. |
| Pre- surveillance motorcycle riding from schedule table 1 and 2 | Current Title: Pre-surveillance Motorcycle Riding Proposed Change: Removal of the course |
The ‘pre-surveillance motorcycle course’ can instead be included as an additional module within a motorcycle course. It is not possible to have a refresher course for this activity. |
| Off-road motorcycling & Off-road driving modules from schedule table 1 | Current Title: Off-road Motorcycling and Off-road Driving Proposed Change: Removal from regulations (Table 1) |
Many forces make use of third-party training providers (for example, Land Rover UK) to deliver Off-Road (OR) training that meets the recognised learning outcomes as contained within the Police Driving National Policing Curriculum (PDNPC). S3(b) of the prescribed training regulations requires that the ‘instructor or trainer has met, respectively, the Police Sector Standards for Training of Instructors or Police Sector Standard for Training of Trainers’ |
| Category B vans and passenger vehicles from schedule table 1 | Current Duration: four hours Proposed Duration: One day |
Due to change to the instructor: student ratio from 1:2 to 1:3 (existing amendment request below), the half day is no longer considered sufficient and a one-day course is required to ensure that all learners have sufficient time to demonstrate the learning objectives. |
| Tactical Phase Pursuit (TpaC): from schedule table 1 | Current Duration: Five days Proposed Duration: One week |
The change would bring this course in line with other course durations. It and allows scope of individual forces to work either a 5x8 hour shifts or 4x10 hour shifts. |
| VIP protection motorcycle escorts from schedule table 1 | Current Duration: Five days Proposed Duration: One week |
To bring these courses in line with other course durations. Moving to ‘one week’ would simplify interpretation of the regulations. |
| Category B vans and passenger vehicles from schedule table 1 | Current Ratio: 1:2 Proposed Ratio: 1:3 |
The change would align it to the response driving ratio, making its assimilation into the response driving module easier to achieve. |
| Period training is valid for before refresher training is required (all training courses) from schedule table 1 | Current Periods: Two, three, and five years Proposed Periods: Three and five years only |
This will help to ease the demand, particularly on large metropolitan forces in providing refresher training to officers who undertake these roles in their daily work. There is benefit in adopting a more generic approach across all modules where they are either considered ‘standard risk’ or ‘enhanced risk’, corresponding to either a five year or three year refresher period. |
| Removal of word ‘ratio’ from column heading from schedule tables 1 and 2 | Current Heading: Required minimum number of trainers to maximum number of students ratio Proposed Heading: Required minimum number of trainers to maximum number of students |
To clarify the requirements |
| VIP Protection Driving from schedule tables 1 and 2 | Current Ratio: 1:3 Proposed Ratio: 3:6 |
To reflect operational requirements for multi-vehicle training. |
| Escorting vehicles (Abnormal Loads etc) Tables 1 and 2 | Current Ratio: 1:3 Proposed Ratio: 3:6 |
To reflect operational requirements for multi-vehicle training. |
Source: Police Powers Unit, Home Office
Table 2 - The Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) Regulations 2023: Summary of the proposed changes to the schedule required frequency of refresher training
| Module | Current (no. of years) | New (no. of years) |
|---|---|---|
| Riding with a pillion passenger | 2 | 3 |
| Response and Advanced Motorcycling | 2 | 3 |
| Evasive and offensive | 2 | 3 |
| Protected convoy driving | 2 | 3 |
| VIP protection motorcycle escorts | 2 | 3 |
| VIP protection driving | 2 | 3 |
| Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads etc) module | Unlimited | 5 |
Source: Police Powers Unit, Home Office
Non-regulatory options
14. There are no non-regulatory options. The police driver training standards are prescribed within the 2023 Regulations. There is no way to update the prescribed police driver training requirements without amending these regulations.
C. Past evaluations and rationale for government intervention
15. The police driver training programme which is prescribed in the 2023 Regulations was devised and implemented by the NPCC and the College of Policing. The NPCC and the College of Police have been monitoring the impact of the regulations and have requested amendments to the regulations to reflect operational changes to the police driver training curriculum and identified issues concerning non-Home Office police forces training in Scotland.
16. The government proposes to amend regulations 3 to 6 in order to clarify that providers of prescribed police driver training - that is, providers licensed by the College of Policing, or Police Scotland - are able to provide such training across England, Wales and Scotland.
17. This misleading interpretation of the 2023 Regulations created unintended consequences and raised concerns about the ability of non-Home Office forces such as BTP, CNC, the NCA, and Ministry of Defence Police, who have a national remit, to carry out police driver training throughout England, Wales and Scotland. The Home Office intend to amend the 2023 Regulations to clarify that providers licensed by the College of Policing may deliver police driver training in Scotland. Further, the amendments will clarify that Police Scotland may deliver police driver training in England and Wales. To this end, these regulations amend the headings of the relevant regulations of the 2023 regulations to clarify and describe police driver training by provider (so either a provider licensed by College of Policing or Police Scotland) rather than by geography.
18. The government also proposes to amend the 2023 Regulations to update the schedule (Tables 1 and 2) of prescribed training requirements to accurately reflect changes to the College of Policing Police Driver Training Curriculum. These changes are operational in nature and have been requested by the NPCC and College of Policing. The NPCC and College of Policing have monitored the implementation of the regulations and have identified improvements which can be made to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the training requirements. The changes aim to ensure that the training is of a high standard while being logistically achievable for all forces. The detailed changes and the rationale for these changes can be found above.
19. Updating the 2023 Regulations to reflect the latest police driver training curriculum will assist those involved in post-incident proceedings to accurately assess whether the police driver had received the prescribed training. The regulations will clarify the responsibilities of Chief Officers in respect of police driver training provision.
D. Appraisal
General assumptions and data
19. The following general assumptions are used in this Economic Note (EN) which is in line with the guidance set out in HM Treasury (2022) Green Book:
-
The appraisal period used is 2025/26 to 2034/35
-
The Price Base year used is FY 2025/26
-
The Present Value base year 2025/26
-
The HM Treasury GDP deflator, 2025
20. Data and assumptions have been drawn from several sources including:
-
Data on the length of training courses and the number of officers who have received training and been collected from several police forces who operate in both England and Wales and Scotland.
-
Through engagement with College of Policing it is assumed that of the officers trained, 90 per cent are constables and 10 per cent are sergeants. This is broadly in line with the number of officers across all forces. It is assumed that a training day is eight hours long following engagement with Greater Manchester Police.
-
It is assumed that only officers who take prescribed driving training will read any familiarisation guidance regarding the proposed changes.
Costs
Monetised costs
21. There are two monetised costs:
-
Familiarisation costs
-
Costs resulting from the increase in officer to Instructor Ratio
Familiarisation Costs
22. Familiarisation costs refer to the reading and comprehension of any guidance documents that result from the amended regulations, as well as the regulations themselves.
23. The proposed guidance is a circular email that is sent to all officers that are affected outlining the changes in the legislation and the impact on the curriculum. This is assumed to be 300 words long.
24. To calculate the costs of familiarisation, the estimated reading time of the email is multiplied by the labour costs of those required to read them.
25. The estimated reading time for the guidance was found by using reading speeds from readingsoft.com[footnote 6]. A speed of between 200 and 700 with a central estimate of 300 words per minute, is assumed. The total reading time is estimated to be between zero and three minutes, with a central estimate of one minute.
26. The number of staff reading the email is estimated by the total number of officers who completed a training course where the refresher period is proposed to change from two years to three years. This is done by taking the annual number of officers trained and multiplying that by two. The number of officers trained in the Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads etc) module is left at the annual rate as currently the refresher period that is required is unlimited and there is no data available for how often officers refresh that training.
27. As mentioned in the general assumptions, the hourly rate uses the assumption that 90 per cent of the officers trained are constables and 10 per cent are sergeants and includes pension contributions and National Insurance.
28. Table 3 below shows the estimated reading times (hours) of the guidance and the opportunity costs expected from reading the guidance.
Table 3 - Breakdown of Police Familiarisation Costs Year 1
| Estimate | Number of staff | Hourly rate (£) | Reading Speed (wpm) | Time spent reading (hours) | Cost (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | 9,903 | 35.38 | 300 | 0.02 | 10,500 |
| Low | 7,922 | 35.38 | 700 | 0.00 | 0 |
| High | 11,884 | 35.38 | 200 | 0.05 | 21,000 |
Source: Home Office Internal Analysis and Readingsoft.com
29. Familiarisation costs are incurred in year 1 only and are estimated to lie in a range of £0 to £21,000, with a central estimate of £10,500.
Costs resulting from the increase in officer to Instructor Ratio
30. Adjusting the ratio between instructors and police officers for the VIP protection driving and escorting vehicles (abnormal loads) modules will lead to an increase in costs as more instructor hours will be needed to carry out the training.
31. The ratio of instructors to police officers is now 1:3 and the proposed changes are to increase the number of instructors per officers to 3:6. This is to allow for more multi-vehicle training which is needed for this training. Each refresher training course lasts one day.
32. Table 4 shows the number of officers trained in each module in 2023, the current and new number of instructor days that is required to carry out the training and the difference between the current and new number of days.
33. It is assumed that 2023 is a representative year for training numbers but to allow for some variation a 20 percent increase and decrease in officers trained has been applied in the high and low scenarios respectively.
Table 4 - Additional instructor labour days
| Module | Officers Trained | Instructor Days Required (Option 0) | Instructor Days Required (Option1) | Difference (days) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | VIP Protection Driving | 829 | 276 | 415 | 138 |
| Central | Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads) | 1511 | 504 | 756 | 252 |
| Low | VIP Protection Driving | 663 | 221 | 332 | 111 |
| Low | Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads) | 1209 | 403 | 604 | 201 |
| High | VIP Protection Driving | 995 | 332 | 497 | 166 |
| High | Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads) | 1813 | 604 | 907 | 302 |
Source: Home Office Internal Analysis
34. It is assumed that training lasts eight hours and that an average instructor salary of £35,000 has been used. This has been taken from an average of job listings online taking pay band that they are being advertised at. Pension contributions and national insurance have also been considered giving a total annual cost of £49,988. To calculate the hourly wage, it is assumed that there are 225 workdays in a year each lasting 7.4 hours to account for breaks which means there are 1,665 hours in a working year. There is an estimated hourly wage of £30.02. This is used to calculate the cost of the additional time that an instructor will need to carry out training.
35. Table 5 shows the value of the increased time that will come from the proposed changes to the 2023 Regulations.
Table 5 - Additional instructor labour time cost (£)
| Module | Total Hourly Wage | Cost of additional instructor time | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | VIP Protection Driving | 30.02 | 33,200 | |
| Central | Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads) | 30.02 | 60,500 | 93,700 |
| Low | VIP Protection Driving | 30.02 | 26,500 | |
| Low | Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads) | 30.02 | 48,400 | 74,900 |
| High | VIP Protection Driving | 30.02 | 39,800 | |
| High | Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads) | 30.02 | 72,600 | 112,400 |
Source: Home Office Internal Analysis
36. The annual cost of the additional instructor time is estimated to be in the range of £74,900 and £112,400 with a central estimate of £93,700.
37. The total cost across the 10-year appraisal period is estimated to be £806,000 with a low estimate of £645,000 and a high estimate of £968,000 (PV).
38. Total monetised costs
39. The total discounted cost across the 10-year appraisal period is estimated to be £817,000 with a low estimate of £645,000 and a high estimate of £989,000 (PV).
Non-monetised costs
40. Any increases in training costs due to having to put on more training or longer training has not been monetised. This is due to the absence of available data as each force procures the training independently so cannot be monetised.
41. Increasing the length of Category B vans and passenger training from four hours to one day will lead to increase costs in terms of instructor labour and police officer time. There is no currently available data for the number of officers who take the training each year so cannot be monetised.
Monetised benefits
42. The monetised benefits of the policies include:
-
Ongoing saving of Police time from longer refresher periods
-
Ongoing saving of Police Officer time from longer refresher periods
43. Whilst officers undertake driver training, they are not able to perform their usual duties. This represents the opportunity cost of training. By reducing the frequency of the proposed courses from two years to three years there is an ongoing saving of officer time that is no longer spent on attending these courses as frequently.
44. Table 6 shows the changes to the frequency in which officers are required to retake each module of training and the length of each module
45. The data is currently not available for the number of refresher courses for Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads etc), so this is left as unmonetised. However, due to it being a one-day course the impact is expected to be low. The number of officers trained in 2023 are the average number that need to be trained each year under the current two-year refresher period.
Table 6 – Officers trained and length of training
| Module | Option 0 - Current (no. of years) | Option 1 - New (no. of years) | No. of Days Training | Officers Trained Annually |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riding with a pillion passenger | 2 | 3 | 0.5 | 87 |
| Response and Advanced Motorcycling | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1,618 |
| Evasive & offensive | 2 | 3 | 2 | 888 |
| Protected convoy driving | 2 | 3 | 1 | 427 |
| VIP protection motorcycle escorts | 2 | 3 | 2 | 347 |
| VIP protection driving | 2 | 3 | 1 | 829 |
| Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads etc) module | Unlimited | 5 | 1 | 1,511 |
Source: Internal Police Reporting
46. The saving due to the reduction of police officer time spent on training is calculated by finding the difference between the annual training time cost between a two-year refresher period and a three-year refresher period.
47. The reduction in time spent on training is calculated by finding the difference in total time spent on training annually for Option 0 and Option 1. The number of officers trained in 2023 are the average number that need to be trained each year under the current two-year refresher period for Option 0. Two thirds of the annual number of officers currently trained will need to be trained per year to meet the three-year refresher periods proposed for Option 1. These are multiplied by the number of days that each training course is which can be found in table 6 above. Subtracting Option 1 from Option 0 gives the annual training time saved by the proposed changes.
48. A high and low scenario of +/-20 per cent of the number of officers trained has been used to consider the impact of different assumptions and the variability of the number of officers that are trained each year.
49. Tables 7, 8 and 9 show the annual difference in training time in days between a two-year refresher period and a three-year refresher period for the central, low and high scenarios.
Table 7 – Central Impact of increasing refresher period to the number of days training per year
| Module | Officers Trained | Option 0: Annual training time (days) | Option 1: Annual training time (days) | Option 1: Annual training time saved (days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riding with a pillion passenger | 87 | 43.5 | 29 | 15 |
| Response and Advanced Motorcycling | 1,618 | 3,236 | 2,157 | 1079 |
| Evasive and offensive | 888 | 1,776 | 1,184 | 592 |
| Protected convoy driving | 427 | 427 | 285 | 142 |
| VIP protection motorcycle escorts | 347 | 694 | 463 | 231 |
| VIP protection driving | 829 | 829 | 553 | 276 |
| Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads etc) module | 1,511 |
Source: Internal Home Office Analysis
Table 8 – Low Impact of increasing refresher period to the number of days training per year
| Module | Officers Trained | Option 0: Annual training time (days) | Option 1: Annual training time (days) | Option 1: Annual training time saved (days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riding with a pillion passenger | 70 | 35 | 23 | 12 |
| Response and Advanced Motorcycling | 1,294 | 2,589 | 1,726 | 863 |
| Evasive and offensive | 710 | 1,421 | 947 | 474 |
| Protected convoy driving | 342 | 342 | 228 | 114 |
| VIP protection motorcycle escorts | 278 | 555 | 370 | 185 |
| VIP protection driving | 663 | 663 | 442 | 221 |
| Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads etc) module | 1,209 |
Source: Internal Home Office Analysis
Table 9 – High Impact of increasing refresher period to the number of days training per year
| Module | Officers Trained | Option 0: Annual training time (days) | Option 1: Annual training time (days) | Option 1: Annual training time saved (days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riding with a pillion passenger | 104 | 52 | 35 | 17 |
| Response and Advanced Motorcycling | 1,942 | 3,883 | 2,589 | 1294 |
| Evasive & offensive | 1,066 | 2,131 | 1,421 | 710 |
| Protected convoy driving | 512 | 512 | 342 | 171 |
| VIP protection motorcycle escorts | 416 | 833 | 555 | 278 |
| VIP protection driving | 995 | 995 | 663 | 332 |
| Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads etc) module | 1,813 |
Source: Internal Home Office Analysis
50. The saving from the reduction of officer time spent on training costs is calculated by multiplying the annual saving in training time by a weighted average of labour costs of constables and sergeants.
51. The hourly labour cost of an officer includes pension contributions and National Insurance. It is assumed that each training day lasts eight hours in line with a standard workday not considering overtime.
52. Through engagement with College of Policing it is assumed that of the officers trained, 90 per cent are constables and 10 per cent are sergeants. This is broadly in line with the number of officers across all forces.
53. The number of refresher courses for Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads etc) was not available so this is left as unmonetised. This is a one-day course, so the impact is likely to be relatively low.
54. Tables 10, 11 and 12 show the impact of total cost savings from adjusting length of time between refresher periods.
Table 10 – Annual Central Time Savings from increase in refresher periods (rounded)
| Module | Annual training time saved (days) | Hourly Rate (£) | Reduction in training time benefit (£) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riding with a pillion passenger | 15 | 35.38 | 4,100 |
| Response and Advanced Motorcycling | 1,079 | 35.38 | 305,300 |
| Evasive & offensive | 592 | 35.38 | 167,500 |
| Protected convoy driving | 142 | 35.38 | 40,300 |
| VIP protection motorcycle escorts | 231 | 35.38 | 65,500 |
| VIP protection driving | 276 | 35.38 | 78,200 |
| Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads etc) module | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Total | 2,335 | 661,000 |
Source: Internal Home Office Analysis
Table 11 – Annual Low Time Savings from increase in refresher periods (rounded)
| Module | Annual training time saved (days) | Hourly Rate (£) | Reduction in training time benefit (£) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riding with a pillion passenger | 12 | 35.38 | 3,280 |
| Response and Advanced Motorcycling | 863 | 35.38 | 244,220 |
| Evasive & offensive | 474 | 35.38 | 134,030 |
| Protected convoy driving | 114 | 35.38 | 32,230 |
| VIP protection motorcycle escorts | 185 | 35.38 | 52,380 |
| VIP protection driving | 221 | 35.38 | 62,560 |
| Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads etc) module | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Total | 1,868 | 529,700 |
Source: Internal Home Office Analysis
Table 12 – Annual High Time Savings from increase in refresher periods (rounded)
| Module | Annual training time saved (days) | Hourly Rate (£) | Reduction in training time benefit (£) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riding with a pillion passenger | 17 | 35.38 | 4,900 | |
| Response and Advanced Motorcycling | 1,294 | 35.38 | 366,300 | |
| Evasive & offensive | 710 | 35.38 | 201,000 | |
| Protected convoy driving | 171 | 35.38 | 48,300 | |
| VIP protection motorcycle escorts | 278 | 35.38 | 78,600 | |
| VIP protection driving | 332 | 35.38 | 93,800 | |
| Escorting Vehicles (Abnormal Loads etc) module | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| Total | 2,802 | 793,000 |
Source: Internal Home Office Analysis
55. The annual total benefit is estimated to be between £529,700 and £793,000 with a central estimate of £661,000.
56. The total benefit across the 10-year appraisal period is estimated to be £6.6 million with a low estimate of £5.3 million and a high estimate of £7.9 million.
57. The total discounted benefit across the 10-year appraisal period is estimated to be £5.7 million with a low estimate of £4.6 million and a high estimate of £6.8 million (PV). Table 13 shows the discounted total benefits.
Table 13 – Total Benefits across appraisal period PV (£m)
| Scenario | Police time saved from longer refresher periods |
|---|---|
| Central | 5.7 |
| Low | 4.6 |
| High | 6.8 |
Source: Internal Home Office Analysis
Non-monetised benefits
58. The monetised benefits of the policies include:
-
Reduction in training course costs
-
Decrease in travel and accommodation costs
-
Reducing training ratio
-
Reduction in training course running costs
59. There will be a reduction in the number of training courses the police forces will need to pay for due to the increase in the number of years between refresher courses. Officers will need to complete refresher courses less frequently so fewer of these courses will need to be run.
60. In addition to the reduction in staff time required, there will be a saving derived from reduced training costs. This is unmonetised as the cost of these courses differs between each police force therefore it is not possible to access the data to monetise the impact of this change.
Decrease in travel and accommodation costs
61. Adjusting the 2023 Regulations to clarify and describe police driver training according to the training provider (that is, Police Scotland or College of Policing) rather than by geography will lead to less travel between and England and Scotland for training for forces that operate in both countries, given the current uncertainty as to the territorial extent of training providers.
62. Examples of this include the BTP and the Ministry of Defence who will only need to provide one set of training for their officers who operate in England and Wales and Scotland.
63. This will lead to lower travel and accommodation costs as an individual officer will not have to travel so far for training. This cannot be monetised due to an absence of available data on the number of officers affected or the average travel and accommodation costs.
64. Reducing training ratios for Category B Van and Passenger Training from 1:2 to 1:3 to bring it in line with other training of that type will mean that less instructors will be needed to complete the training. There is no available data for the number of officers to take part in this training a year, so it is not possible to monetise the impact of this.
Amendments with no impact
65. There are several amendments proposed in this legislation that have no tangible impact. These amendments are wording changes to improve the clarity of the legislation. This includes renaming ‘Standard response driving’ to ‘response driving’ and clarifying the course length from ‘five days’ to ‘one week’. These changes will not have any impact on the police.
NPSV, BNPV and EANDCB
66. The monetised costs have no impact on business therefore both the Business Net Present Value (BNPV) and the equivalent annual net direct cost to business (EANDCB) are zero.
67. The total non-discounted benefits are estimated to be between £5.3 million and £7.9 million, with a central estimate of £6.6 million.
68. The NPSV is estimated to be between £3.9 million and £5.8 million, with a central estimate of £4.9 million (PV)
E. Wider impacts
69. The proposed amendments will update and improve the 2023 Regulations. The 2023 Regulations prescribe high and consistent standards of police driver training which gives officers additional legal protection and helps to ensure that police drivers have the right skills to protect the public by pursuing criminals and dangerous drivers on the roads. These high standards of police driver training help to reduce the road safety risks to the public from police emergency response and pursuit driving. Improving interoperability between England, Wales and Scotland will improve officer and public safety.
70. The proposed amendments to the 2023 Regulations will have a small positive environmental impact and deliver minor financial savings for non-Home Office police forces based in Scotland by reducing fuel and hotel costs as they will no longer have to travel to England or Wales to undertake training.
F. Sensitivity
71. This measure does not require a full impact assessment as there are no business impacts expected to result from updating the police driving training regulations associated as impacts are assessed to be all associated with public spending.
72. If there is a larger change in the volumes of officers trained there could be a significant impact. The sensitivity analysis looks at a 50 per cent increase and decrease in the number of officers trained. This used the same methodology and assumptions as the ongoing saving of police officer time from longer refresher periods monetised benefit.
73. Table 14 shows the impact of the sensitivity analysis.
Table 14 - Sensitivity Analysis Staff Time Saving
| Scenario | Total Annual Training Time Saved (days) | Reduction in training time benefit (£) |
|---|---|---|
| 50% decrease | 1186 | 330,400 |
| 50% increase | 3503 | 991,300 |
Source: Internal Home Office Analysis
74. Overall, a 50 per cent decrease in the number of officers being trained will lead to a £330,400 annual saving and £3.3 million saving throughout the appraisal period of police officers time saving through longer refresher. A 50 per cent increase is estimated to a £991,300 annual saving and a £9.9 million saving across the 10-year appraisal period.
G. Risks
75. The main risks to the analysis are large changes in the number of officers that require the training modules that are proposed to be amended in this legislation. This is unlikely as these are well established training processes and there is not expected to be any significant change beyond the change in refresher periods which has been considered.
76. Additionally due to the absence of centralised data the scale of the impact on training costs such a renting track areas, vehicles or specialist instructors the whole impact of these changes has not been monetised. These additional costs only apply to a very small number of training courses that are only given to specialist teams and officers, so the impact is expected to be low.
77. There is a policy risk that increasing the time between refresher courses could lead to a reduction in officer or public safety. However, this risk is believed to be extremely low. Trained police drivers use their skills extremely frequently. The NPCC and College of Policing have kept the training programme under review since the 2023 Regulations came into force and have proposed the changes to the refresher course timings to ensure it is logistically achievable for all forces.
78. Currently there is no set maximum time between refresher courses for the escorting vehicles (abnormal loads etc) training and the proposed changes will set it at 5 years. There is no data on how often officers currently take the refresher for this course so it is unknown whether this change will lead to an increase or decrease in the amount of training needed across the police. The risk is deemed to be low as this training course is only one day long and is already completed by around 1,500 officers in 2023 so it is unlikely there will be a significant increase in impacts.
79. Scenario analysis has been used to account for the risk that there could be a change in the for the monetised costs and benefits. Therefore volumes are varied by 20 per cent above and below the central scenario estimate throughout the analysis.
H. Annex
Mandatory specific impact test - Statutory Equalities Duties
The Home Office carried out an Equality Impact Assessment on Police Driver Prescribed training standards across England and Wales and concluded that this secondary legislation will not create or exacerbate any disbenefits for individuals with protected characteristics. In England and Wales, this training will be aligned with the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice and national police driver training curriculum.
The high and consistent standards of training, already prescribed in 2023 Regulations, are an important part of ensuring that the changes to 2023 Regulations will gives officers the same legal protection across Great Britain including Scotland. It will help avoid officers falling below the professional standards expected of them, will safeguard the public and mitigate the risk of officers being prosecuted for careless or dangerous driving or subsequently facing a misconduct hearing following a road traffic collision.
The SRO has agreed these summary findings.
Complete? Yes
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Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 -www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/32/contents/enacted ↩
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The Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) Regulations 2023 -www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/185/regulation/2/made ↩
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National Decision Model, College of Policing - www.college.police.uk/app/national-decision-model/national-decision-model ↩
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The College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice - https://www.college.police.uk/app/roads-policing/police-driving ↩
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The Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) Regulations 2023 - www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/185/schedules/made ↩
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Free Speed-Reading Test: How fast do you read? (readingsoft.com): https://readingsoft.com/ ↩