Policy paper

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

Published 3 July 2025

Introduction and proposals

In 2022, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act amended the Road Traffic Act 1988 to introduce a new legal standard for police drivers and other designated persons when driving for police purposes (or in the case of the National Crime Agency, for law enforcement purposes). This meant that the standard of driving of police officers and other designated persons can be compared to a careful and competent peer with the same standard of training, rather than with a member of the public. As a result, the officer’s advanced skills and training may be taken into account during post-incident proceedings, offering a fairer comparator during any post-incident proceedings involving a road traffic incident.

Should an officer be involved in a collision, this new test allows the courts to judge their standard of driving against a competent and careful peer with the same standard of training and take into account whether a similarly trained police driver would have reasonably made the same decision under the circumstances.

Given the high-risk nature of police pursuits^{[footnote 1]}, consistent and high-quality driver training is essential. The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) have worked closely with the College of Policing and police forces to standardise police driver training across England and Wales. This training is aligned with the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice and the national police driver training curriculum. The high and consistent standards of training give police drivers a fairer comparator and help to avoid officers falling below the professional standards expected of them.

The Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) Regulations 2023^{[footnote 2]} (“the 2023 Regulations”) prescribed the requirements for prescribed training provided in England and Wales and Scotland. The regulations assist in enabling those involved in post-incident investigations and court cases to objectively assess whether the officer (or other designated person) has undertaken the appropriate prescribed driver training.  They also clarify Chief Officers’ responsibility in relation to the provision of police driver training within their force.

The NPCC and College of Policing identify changes to the police driver training to reflect learning from incidents, best practice, Independent Office for Police Conduct recommendations or other operational factors. Since the regulations have been in place NPCC have continually monitored the impact of their implementation on operational police driving. It is important that the regulations are updated to accurately reflect the latest police driver training curriculum. This will allow them to continue to assist in enabling those involved in post-incident investigations and court cases to objectively assess whether the officer (or other designated person) has undertaken the prescribed driver training. 

The consultation document set out, and sought views on, proposed amendments to the 2023 Regulations which respond to operational considerations raised by NPCC and College of Policing. These changes aim to:

• Update training requirements to reflect the latest College of Policing curriculum.
• Clarify training arrangements for the National Crime Agency and non-Home Office forces (e.g. British Transport Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary, Ministry of Defence Police) when operating across England, Wales and Scotland by clarifying that providers can deliver training across police force areas. This will improve interoperability between forces in England, Wales, and Scotland.
• Align the wording to current policing sector terminology.

The consultation sought input from police driver training experts and stakeholders across the criminal justice system and took place between 9 and 30 May 2025.

Summary of responses

1. The Home Office received 24 responses to the consultation on the Police Driving (Prescribed Training) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (“the 2025 Regulations”); all by email. Of these responses, the largest group (14) were from Police Forces in England, Wales and Scotland. A further 10 responses were from other policing sector organisations such as the Independent Office of Police Conduct, the Police Federation and the NPCC. The responses to the consultation were analysed to assess the level of support for each of the proposed amendments.

2. The consultation responses demonstrated broad support for the proposed amendments, with the majority of stakeholders either agreeing or strongly agreeing with each of the five proposals.

3. The majority of respondents were supportive of the high-level requirements in the body of the regulations (Proposals 1, 2, 3). No respondents disagreed.

4. There were a small number of disagreements with the changes to the Schedule of prescribed training courses (Proposals 4, 5). There are differing views on the introduction of the longer refresher training interval; some respondents thought that the shorter 2-year refresher training period would be helpful in maintaining skills. However, the change had been requested to make the refresher training requirement logistically achievable for larger police forces. Some respondents wanted more flexibility on aspects of the prescribed police driver training. Some respondents thought that the introduction of a refresher period for Escorting Abnormal Loads (ABLOs) was unnecessary while some thought that the interval period for the ABLOs refresher training period was too long. One respondent thought that the name change from Standard Response Driving to Response Driving would unnecessarily create an administrative burden. One respondent disagreed with removing the requirement for Off-Road training.

Conclusion

5. The government has considered the responses to the targeted stakeholder consultation on the principles for the Police Driving (Prescribed Training) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 government consultation.

6. The government will change the wording in Regulation 3 of the 2023 Regulations so that it aligns with current policing sector terminology. Since the introduction of the regulations, the sector standards have been renamed and are now referred to as the ‘College of Policing Standards’ instead of ‘the Police Sector Standards for Training for Instructors or Police Sector Standard for Training for trainers’. Throughout the regulations, the terminology for ‘student’ will be replaced by ‘learner’.

7. Regulation 3 of the 2023 Regulations will focus on licensed training providers rather than licensed individual instructors. This will now read “prescribed training provided by a provider licensed by the College of Policing”. This will reflect the fact that the College of Policing license the training provider rather than the individual.

8. The 2025 Regulations will clarify that prescribed training may either be provided by a provider licensed by the College of Policing or by Police Scotland and ensure that non-Home Office Force instructors and officers based in Scotland can deliver, or receive, driver training in Scotland. Further, they will clarify that police forces in England and Wales may carry out part of their driver training in Scotland, and Police Scotland may carry out part of their driver training in England or Wales.

9. The government, NPCC and College of Policing have carefully considered the concerns relating to the changes to the Schedule of prescribed training courses and have decided to go ahead with the changes. This is because the benefits of consistent and high national standards for police driver training outweigh the arguments in favour of some police force driver training providers diverging. NPCC and College of Policing assess that the changes to police driver training requirements are achievable and pragmatic.

10. The 2025 Regulations will make changes to the Schedule of prescribed police driver training requirements. These relate to a course name, length of course, refresher training requirements, removal of a course and merging of a course and a change in wording to align with current policing sector terminology.

List of respondents

• Leicestershire Police
• National Crime Agency
• Ministry of Defence
• GoSafe
• Nottinghamshire Police
• Crown Prosecution Service
• British Transport Police
• Northumbria Police
• North Wales Police
• Dyfed-Powys Police
• Lincolnshire Police
• Gwent Police
• Police Scotland
• Civil Nuclear Constabulary
• National Police Chiefs Council
• Lancashire Police
• College of Policing
• Cheshire Police
• Metropolitan Police Service
• Sussex Police
• Greater Manchester Police
• Surrey Police
• Police Federation of England and Wales
• Independent Office for Police Conduct

1. There were 32 fatalities from 29 police-related road traffic incidents in 2023/24, Annual deaths during or following police contact report - 2023/24 | Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) ↩

2. The Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) Regulations 2023 ↩