Securing Community Transport’s Future: Our D1 White Paper
By David Kelly, Head of Policy and Campaigns, CTA
It’s a proud moment for us to be able to share with you the Community Transport movement’s White Paper on changes to minibus driver licensing rules.
Developing our proposal has been a mammoth task and a real team effort. I’d like to thank all of my colleagues, and all of the CTA members, who’ve helped make it happen.
Our Movement
CTA has more than 1,300 members in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Every single year, more than 16 million passengers rely on these Community Transport operators to get to where they need to be – college, school, the workplace, the high street, the GP surgery, the hospital, family and friends.
3 in 4 Community Transport vehicles are minibuses with between 9 and 16 passenger seats, making the iconic minibus an essential enabler of millions of essential Community Transport journeys.
Our Consultation
Back in late 2025, we launched a major, months-long consultation with our membership and the UK’s Community Transport movement about shortages of qualified minibus drivers and the future of minibus driver licensing rules.
We tested four options for change with focus groups, an online survey and conversations with experts and stakeholders – all to gather views and insights enabling us to develop a proposal based on strong evidence and a strong mandate.
The Crisis
Our members were clear. They told us that the crisis is already here. And that it needs urgent action from the UK Government.
More than 1 in 2 report minibus driver shortages today – forcing them to cut services, cancel growth plans and turn down requests for support.
And they expect things to get worse – more than 4 in 5 do not believe they will have enough minibus drivers 3 years from now.
The Status Quo
The status quo is simply not working – and there is a strong mandate for change. 60% of our consultation respondents oppose the current rules.
Today, a D1 (101) licence authorises driving a minibus of any weight with up to 16 passenger seats for a non-profit organisation like a CTO and receiving payment when operating under a Section 19 or Section 22 permit.
But a D1 (101) licence can only be acquired by ‘grandfather rights’ (i.e. those who acquired their standard car licence by test before 1997) or passing a full D1 test.
Due to cost, time pressures and a lack of funding, trainers and assessors, this is a major barrier for bringing younger minibus drivers into Community Transport jobs and volunteering roles.
The Cliff Edge
As a result, we are fast approaching a dangerous cliff edge. 99% of D1 or D1 (101) licences are held by the ‘grandfather rights generation’.
Every year, we are losing more and more people from the pool of potential minibus drivers, as the grandfather rights generation turns 70 years old – the point at which renewal and medical checks kick-in.
More than 3 million full D1 or D1 (101) licences will be lost by 2031, meaning the pool of potential Community Transport minibus drivers will shrink by 22% in just 5 years.
We urgently need to find a way to secure the next generation of minibus drivers.
The Solution
So, what’s the solution?
It’s all inside our new White Paper, Securing Community Transport’s Future: Licensing rule changes for the next generation of minibus drivers, which we launched in October 2026.
We propose a new rule whereby a D1 (101) licence can be acquired by B licence holders who complete a DVSA-accredited training-based upgrade (potentially such as our Minibus Driver Awareness Scheme or MiDAS) – provided that they also meet four additional stipulations:
- Minimum age of 25 years old
- Minimum experience of 5 years on B licence
- Medical checks every 5 years
- Conduct standard of no drug or alcohol offences
As well as avoiding the cliff edge threatening the future of Community Transport, our proposal would also strengthen passenger safety and driver competency by introducing a mandatory training requirement for all minibus drivers for the very first time, which would also be backed up by the four additional safeguards above.
Our proposal has overwhelming support – 78% of our consultation respondents backed it and 73% of CTOs believe it will increase the availability of D1 drivers for their organisation.
Implementation
Our proposal does not require primary legislation and can be implemented directly by Ministers through secondary legislation.
Our White Paper sets out in detail the targeted amendments which would be necessary via a statutory instrument to:
- The Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Regulations 1999
- The Section 19 Permit Regulations 2009
- The Community Bus Regulations 2009
The Road Traffic Act of 1988 gives Ministers the relevant delegated powers and these have been exercised repeatedly in the past for similar purposes – including in 1996 to create the D1 licensing regime we have today and in 2025 to change the eligibility rules for driving zero-emission minibuses.
It’s Time
We believe it’s time for decisive action from Government.
The status quo is simply not working – there is a strong mandate for change and doing nothing is simply not an option.
Because this is not tomorrow’s problem – the crisis is already here. Our members, and their passengers, cannot wait much longer.
Our proposal represents a practical, responsible and long-term solution for all of the UK and gives our movement the chance to train, recruit and retain the next generation of minibus drivers.
Join Our Campaign
Please read our White Paper and dig into the detail of our proposal. We’re keen to hear from you about your ideas, questions or concerns. You can email us at policy@ctauk.org to start the conversation.
We look forward to working with all of our allies inside and outside of Parliament, and with Ministers and officials in the Department for Transport (DfT), to take forward this critical agenda at a critical time.
We’ve written to Simon Lightwood MP, the Minister for Buses and Local Transport, and Justin Madders MP, the Minister for Roads, to share our proposal, because of their responsibility for Community Transport and driver licensing respectively.
After our successful D1 Reception in the House of Commons, we’re urging all CTA members across the UK to join our campaign by asking their local MPs to support us and urge DfT to act.
Together, we can secure Community Transport’s future.