DfT Could Make Learner Drivers Wait Before Their Test After 273 Deaths

• The Department for Transport has consulted on forcing every learner car driver to complete a minimum learning period, a minimum number of supervised hours, or both before a practical test.
• Drivers aged 17 to 24 are 6% of licence holders but were involved in 24% of fatal and serious collisions in 2024, and 273 people died in collisions involving them.
• Nothing is law yet: the consultation ran from 7 January to 11 May 2026 and names no preferred option, no start date and no cost.

DfT Is Asking Whether Learners Should Wait Before Taking the Practical Test

Today a learner in Great Britain can book a practical driving test the moment they hold a provisional licence and have passed the theory test. There is no minimum number of months and no minimum number of hours behind the wheel. The Department for Transport (DfT) has now asked the public whether that should end.

The consultation, titled “Introducing a minimum learning period for learner drivers (category B driving licence)”, opened on 7 January 2026 and closed on 11 May 2026. It covers the standard car licence only. Motorcycles are handled in a separate consultation, and lorry and bus licences have their own system.

The department says it does not present a preferred option. Instead it lists a menu of measures that could be combined: a minimum time period between passing the theory test and sitting the practical test, a minimum number of supervised practical hours, a logbook to record the learning, a mandatory learning syllabus and mandatory e-learning. Fifteen questions ask respondents which of these they back, how long any period should be, what age the rules should apply to and who should be exempt.

The consultation document says DfT will publish a summary of responses and a government response on the consultation’s GOV.UK page. Until that response appears, every figure for months or hours remains a question rather than a proposal. Anyone telling you the rules have already changed is ahead of the evidence.

The Numbers DfT Used to Make the Case

The foreword, written by Local Transport Minister Lilian Greenwood, says 273 people were killed in collisions involving young car drivers aged 17 to 24 in 2024. The document adds that drivers in that age band hold 6% of driving licences yet were involved in 24% of fatal and serious collisions that year.

The trend in deaths among young drivers themselves is moving the right way. DfT lists 448 killed aged 17 to 24 in 1990, 158 in 2010 and 73 in 2024, a fall of 84% from the 1990 level. The consultation still calls 17 to 24 year olds one of the highest fatality risk groups, especially males, whether they are driving or riding as passengers.

Its casualty charts use STATS19 police data and show how heavily the risk falls on the youngest drivers. In 2024 there were 1,376 car drivers aged 17 to 24 killed or seriously injured, more than any other age band in the table. Measured per billion miles travelled, the rate for 17 to 24 year old car drivers was 127.1, against 60.2 for drivers aged 25 to 29 and 24.2 for drivers aged 56 to 60.

The same chart carries a figure that older readers will notice. Per billion miles, the rate for car drivers aged 81 to 85 was 102.9 and for drivers aged 86 and over it was 169.5, higher than for the youngest group. DfT used the table to support action on learners, but it sits in the same document that makes the case for young drivers, and it feeds the separate debate over eyesight checks that we covered in what a new DVLA eyesight test could mean for 6 million older drivers.

The department also put a cost on collisions. It estimates that in 2024 they cost the NHS £3 billion in medical and ambulance costs, and that lost output reached £6.9 billion.

What Other Countries Do and What the Evidence Shows

DfT points to minimum learning periods in Australasia and North America, where they run between 3 and 12 months. Victoria in Australia requires drivers under 21 to hold a learner permit for at least 12 months, drivers aged 21 to under 25 for at least 6 months, and those aged 25 and over for at least 3 months. New York and California require 6 months for under 18s. Ontario in Canada requires 12 months, cut to 8 months if the learner completes an education course.

Required supervised hours vary widely. In North America 40 to 50 hours is the norm. In Australasia a minority of jurisdictions set no minimum, while others require between 50 and 120 hours.

The evidence DfT summarises is mixed. Of six evaluations that looked at minimum learning periods without other new driver measures, four found a positive effect on collisions, covering 12 month learner periods in Ontario and Quebec and 6 month periods in Kentucky and Connecticut. Measured reductions in collisions ranged from 5% to 33% for the groups studied. Two studies, in California and San Diego, could not detect an effect with a 6 month period and 50 supervised hours.

A 2013 study of 16 and 17 year old drivers in US states found a significant 7% reduction in fatal collision rates when states with a minimum learning period were pooled. The pooled effect of minimum supervised hours alone was not significant. The consultation also admits that for some of its evidence it could not access the original studies, so it cannot tell whether they measured the learning period or the wider graduated licensing system.

How Much Practice Learners Already Get

Several studies cited in the document found that novice drivers who passed their test reported a mean of 37 to 52 hours with an instructor and 13 to 20 hours of private practice with family or friends. DfT warns that individual learners vary widely around those averages.

Parents and grandparents often provide the private practice. Any mandatory hours requirement would land on the person in the passenger seat and the learner. The consultation asks whether hours should be supervised by an approved driving instructor, an eligible supervising driver, or both.

Voluntary schemes have not worked, according to the department. Its Driver2020 trials offered learners and novice drivers five voluntary interventions and found no effect on self reported collisions in the first 12 months of driving. Engagement was low, from 3% to 16.5%. An app based logbook had a 3% engagement rate and a mentoring agreement 4%. DfT argues that this points to the need for mandatory measures.

On logbooks, the document cites a 2011 study of Queensland, where introducing a logbook to record practice hours raised average practice by over 29 hours.

Who Could Be Hit and Who Might Be Exempt

The department says it acknowledges concerns about feasibility, especially for learners in certain types of employment, those with carers’ responsibilities, those with disabilities and holders of foreign licences who can drive on them for 12 months after becoming resident. It says there are no simple solutions. Questions 11 to 13 ask who should be exempt and how exemptions should work.

One exemption is already fixed. The law lets a person aged 16 hold a provisional licence and take both tests if they receive a qualifying disability benefit, and the document says there are no current plans to change that.

The rules could also reach drivers who are not new. Question 14 asks whether any new learner requirements should apply to a driver whose licence is revoked for collecting six or more penalty points in the two year probation period under the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995. Question 15 asks the same about a driver disqualified and ordered by a court to retake a test, ordinary or extended.

Driver licensing is reserved to Westminster for Scotland and Wales, so any change would apply across England, Scotland and Wales.

What It Could Mean for Test Waits, Insurance and Your Family

The consultation does not say how a minimum period would interact with the test backlog. Waiting times for practical tests are already a live issue, which we covered in why driving test waits rose even as DVSA ran a record number of tests. Question 5 does ask whether the theory test certificate, valid for two years, should last longer if a minimum period is introduced.

On insurance, DfT is careful. It says insurers set their own terms and premiums, and that if collisions involving young and novice drivers fall overall, that could contribute to lower premiums for younger drivers. It does not promise a saving.

For families the practical steps are modest while the policy is undecided. Learners already take the theory test before booking a practical test, and nothing in the document changes that today. If you are paying for lessons, the consultation’s figures for typical hours show what other learners have been doing. The sensible course is to watch for the government response on GOV.UK, which will say whether a minimum period, minimum hours or neither is going ahead and when.

DfT describes the idea as potentially the biggest change to learning to drive in the 90 years after the driving test was introduced. Whether it becomes law depends on the response it publishes and on Parliament.

Sources:

• Introducing a minimum learning period for learner drivers (category B driving licence), Department for Transport