D1: Safeguarding Community Transport’s future through driver licensing changes
Community Transport across the UK is facing a serious and growing shortage of qualified minibus drivers, which is already disrupting essential services, restricting innovation and growth and threatening the long-term sustainability of our movement.
The core issue lies in current driver licensing rules. Drivers must hold a minibus (category D1) licence to operate minibuses weighing more than 3.5 tonnes, either by test or for those who acquired a car (category B) licence before 1997.
The Cliff Edge
Community Transport is now rapidly approaching a cliff edge, which has been created by these rules.
Only 1% of D1 licences (by test and ‘grandfather rights’) in Great Britain are held by people under the age of 46. 99% are held by people between the ages of 46 and 69. Community Transport is increasingly reliant on this ageing and decreasing cohort of drivers.
In the next five years, more than 2.9 million D1 licences are likely to be lost by drivers turning 70, which is 21% of all D1 licences. D1 entitlement will continue to reduce in each of the following years, severely reducing the pool of potential employees and volunteers available to drive minibuses.
We need the UK Government to act now to avoid this dangerous cliff-edge and safeguard the long-term future of Community Transport. Without change, many Community Transport services and operators will be at risk of reduction, withdrawal or closure.
CTA has been calling for change for several years, but our campaign has now entered a new and important phase.
Options for Change
Based on member feedback, policy analysis and discussions with government, CTA has identified several potential routes to implementation, which we have presented in a new consultation paper.
These options offer three different ways that change could be achieved, balancing the need to safeguard passenger safety with the urgent need to address the driver shortage crisis affecting Community Transport:
1. Maintain the status quo with investment in D1 training
2. Replace the requirement to take a D1 test with a training-based licence ‘upgrade’ to D1 and introduce certain stipulations to maintain safety and quality standards
a. upgrade to full D1 licence
b. upgrade to D1 (101 exemption)
3. Exempt drivers for operators with Section 19, Section 22 (GB) and Section 10B (NI) permits
Our consultation paper explains these options for change, explores potential advantages and disadvantages and asks CTA members to share their experiences, insights and perspectives.
We will hold a series of focus groups with members and interviews with key stakeholders, followed by an online survey open to all CTA members.
We will use this data and evidence to produce a position paper setting out to Government our movement’s preferred approach and how it can be implemented.
Our Consultation
Click here to download our consultation paper.
Registration for the Focus Groups is now open:
· 15 January 2026: 11.30am – 1pm
· 22 January 2026: 1.30pm – 3pm
· 29 January 2026: 10am – 11.30am
The online survey will open in February.
Further Information
You can send any questions or comments to policy@ctauk.org and stay up-to-date with the progress of our campaign by signing up here for our newsletters.