By Emily Drew
Graduated Driving licenses are to be introduced in Northern Ireland this October, the first country in the United Kingdom to do so.
The change has surprised driving instructors, with one expressing their concerns over some of the new rules and the fact they were not asked for their input at all.
Julie Pritchard, a driving instructor in Newtownards, said: “We were not consulted, we have no information. We have only received one email about graduated learning and it is the same information that was sent to the public.
“I think they should have consulted driving instructors. We are the ones who are doing the job. Everybody is heavily involved, there are hundreds and hundreds of us out there doing this job and think it would have been nice to get our opinion on it from on the ground, so to speak. We’re hearing the pupils, we are in the car with the pupils.”
There is also concern amongst driving instructors about some of the new rules that are to come with the introduction of the graduated driving licenses, namely the mandatory six-month learning period students must do before they take their test. “Everybody learns at different rates,” Pritchard said, “I think they need to acknowledge that.”
“I think the 6 month wait to do your test is a bit unfair on some pupils. Don’t get me wrong, some pupils if they are only doing one lesson a week for an hour, that’s only 26 lessons over 6 months – not unheard of. But I have people who would go out maybe 2 or 3 time a week for an hour and a half at a time who could be ready in half that time – I feel it’s a bit unfair on them to be penalised for putting the extra graft in. So, I’m a wee bit concerned about that, but we’ll see how it pans out.”
“I think what we should have done is instead of doing a six month is gave a certain amount of hours with an approved driving instructor were we would sign off and say, ‘this person has done X,Y,Z hours with us and we think their competent’ and then move on.”
This six-month period also brings a concern about the potential backlog it will create for people trying to book their driving tests.
“It’s just going to be overwhelmed. We are going to end up in a situation like England where you are looking at 6-7 month waiting lists to book a driving test. It’s nearly like you can foresee the problems.”
Another major change that this new licensing system will bring in are the inclusion of a recorded logbook before students go for their tests, with confusion on how this will be enforced, and what these logs will entail.
Julie said: “They are also saying a parent could sign it off and I just think, how are you going to police that? I mean a parent could just tick a box and say yes. How are they going to know any different?”
She added: “As an instructor, I would not say ‘yes that’s correct they have completed roundabouts’, for example, unless they had actually done that, and they were competent at it. So that’s a concern.”
However, there is hope that this new system will bring the benefits that the Department of Infrastructure is looking for, which is mainly to lower the number of serious incidents and fatalities on the roads. The PSNI reported 56 fatalities last year, down from 69 deaths in 2024, and 11 have been reported this year so far.
“Hopefully it will benefit, but I think there will be a few teething problems, and they may have to make a few alterations to make it work”
Earlier when speaking to the BBC: Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins said the changes were “aimed at young drivers who are sadly most likely to be killed or seriously injured on our roads”.
The minister said that in 2024, there were 164 people killed or seriously injured in Northern Ireland’s roads from crashes caused by a driver aged between 17 and 23.
“This age group of drivers account for 24% of fatal or serious collisions despite holding just 8% of licences,” she added.
The Department for Infrastructure said it would shortly launch a public information campaign about graduated driver licensing, and officials would liaise with approved instructors, the PSNI and a range of others ahead of the new rules being introduced.
- Emily Drew
- Emily Drew
