Protecting Section 19 and Our Children & Young People

Passenger safety is of paramount importance to us and our members. We work together every single day to deliver safe, legal and comfortable Community Transport journeys.

Through our Advice Service, our Minibus Driver Awareness Scheme (MiDAS) and our role as a designated body issuing Section 19 permits, we maintain regulatory compliance and raise safety standards by offering expert advice, information, support and training to drivers, passenger assistants and transport managers across the UK.

However, there have been renewed calls in recent months from some quarters for schools across the UK to be prevented from operating minibuses under the trusted Section 19 permit regime. We are concerned that, while the campaign based on a tragic fatal accident from 1993 is well-intentioned, it risks dismantling a proven approach to safe school transport with serious unintended consequences.

Our CEO, Dr Victoria Armstrong, has therefore written to Simon Lightwood MP, the Local Transport Minister, to set out our position on this matter. Mr Lightwood’s portfolio includes responsibility for the operator and driver licensing regimes governing our sector. You can read Victoria’s letter in full by clicking here.

We strongly believe in evidence-based public policy. We do not believe there is evidence to support a change in the law, which would be:

· Unnecessary, given Community Transport’s steadfast commitment to the highest safety standards;

· Disproportionate, given our sector’s excellent safety record; and,

· Damaging, given the positive contribution which Section 19 permits enable operators to make to our society.

Things have changed significantly since 1993. Higher levels of safety and lower incidences of accident and injury have been achieved thanks to the:

· Outlawing of the ‘crew bus’ in 1997, which was cited by the inquest into the 1993 accident;

· Improved design and safety features of minibuses;

· Strengthening of the driver licensing and enforcement regime; and,

· Launch of MiDAS in 1994, by the sector and for the sector, which now trains over 20,000 people each year.

Three-quarters of our members are local charities, community groups or social enterprises, half of which offer group vehicle hire to schools and groups. 13% of our members are schools or other educational bodies. Section 19 permits enable them to safely give children and young people new experiences, opportunities and skills, like competing in sport, visiting museums or enjoying nature. This activity must be preserved and cherished.

Requiring schools and educational bodies to operate under the O-Licensing regime, instead of with Section 19 permits, as the campaign has called for, would:

· Considerably increase costs for schools at a time of serious budgetary pressures. D1 licences are time-consuming to acquire and cost a minimum of £1,000;

· Generate additional and complex bureaucracy for schools and teachers; and,

· Unfairly restrict the life chances of children and young people, especially those in lower-income households, with no safety benefits.

Instead, we will advocate for measures which will protect both our movement and the children, young people and teachers in our schools, like driver licensing reform.

We are pleased that the Minister, in his response to Victoria’s letter, recognises the benefits of Section 19 permits, welcomes the impact of MiDAS and commits to continue working with us to ‘protect passengers and secure the future of community transport’.

We hope to work with the Minister and the Department for Transport (DfT) to increase the supply of accredited, qualified drivers at the same time as raising safety standards by granting D1 licence entitlements to B licence holders with MiDAS as the new mandatory standard.

If you’d like to discuss CTA’s position on this issue, or any of our other policy and campaigns work, you can reach me via david.kelly@ctauk.org.