ADINJC Members Meeting Minutes | 13th September 2025

Held on Saturday 13 September 2025 at the Holiday Inn, Coventry

Stewart opened the meeting at 10.00, welcomed members and thanked them for coming.

Present

Stewart Lochrie (Chair), Lynne Barrie (President), Sue Duncan (Secretary), Peter Boxshall (Treasurer), Fiona Clarke, Gordon Palmer-Taylor (DDSA), Liam Greaney (Driving Pro), Kevin & Tracey Field (Confident Drivers), Richard Dallison (RED), Andy Lloyd (Southern DIA), Kenute Wallen & David Allen (Birmingham ADIs), Bernard Vencatachellum (My Four Wheels), Graham Feest (ADINJC Road Safety Advisor), Russell Jones, Pennie Alexander, Chris Porter, Tina Cassady, Daryl Keightley, Charli Hodgson, Maggie Saleh, Geoff Moore, Judith Collinson, Andrew Love, John Phillipson, Waqas Akhtar, Vicky Folland, Terry Cook, Michelle Lloyd, Khesraw Ghazizada, Ken Tompkins. Hon members: George Simpson, Bryan Curtis, Nick Ibbott.

Guest Speakers

Vickie Ambrose, Kim Gibson, Kate Monk.

Apologies

Rachael Lloyd-Phillips, Charles Moffat, Mike Bell, James Quinn, Richard Gillmore, Brian Murray. Tom Stenson, Sue Papworth, Dan Hill, Gary Hardy, Larry Girling, Garry Thomas, Terry Bassingthwaighte, Nigel Slater, Neil Peek, Mandy Dawson, Kathy Higgins.

Minutes of the meeting held in Coventry on 31 May 2025 were proposed by Fiona Clarke, and seconded by Liam Greaney and agreed unanimously. There were no matters arising.

Correspondence

Sue Duncan reported on the following items of correspondence:

• National Audit Office investigating practical driving test delays, looking at scale & nature of waiting times, root cause of delays, how DVSA is responding to delays. NJC co-operating along with the other NASP members.
• Issues at Doncaster TC that we never really got to the bottom of
• Queries on new rules for using OBS
• Weekly correspondence from a member in Slough who writes to his MP and DVSA every week about the test booking issues
• Clarification for Scottish MPs on the PVG scheme
• Suggestions from members on how to tackle the backlog, which we pass on to DVSA
• Last meeting someone raised an issue with car insurance not being valid on a test if an examiner is under 25. We raised this with DVSA who are unaware of such issues. They said – “A driving examiner is an observer not an accompanying driver during the driving test. This would be a matter for the insurance company and driving instructor to clarify the difference between being an instructor/accompanying driver and observer on a test. Nationally there are 4 driving examiners under the age of 25.”
• NJC was invited to attend the Pathways to Independence open day for healthcare professionals, support organisations and instructors. Charli Hodgson will be representing us.
• We had a complaint from the parent of a student about the conduct of his instructor and have sent them the details on making a complaint to DVSA.

Chair’s Report

Thank you very much to Vickie Ambrose and Kim Gibson from Drive-Up Training and also Kate Monk from MyLearnerDriver.com who have kindly offered to present to the group this morning.

And thank you to all of you for giving up your Saturday mornings to come and join us – it’s great to have some new faces with us.

Update on the work of the GC and Executive Team since our last meeting on the 31st of May:

• At the AGM in May, we updated the constitution of the ADINJC to include a commitment to provide more information and support to driving instructors in the area of health and wellbeing.
• As most of us will be aware, anyone who drives professionally for a living is engaged in a role that is sub-optimal to their health.
• Long periods of sitting
• Challenges with ensuring enough fluids are taken on board
• Nutritional challenges, avoiding the temptations of fast food which is available on every high street and petrol station.
• Following the change to the constitution, the GC formed a sub-committee to take the lead on brain-storming some ideas for a campaign and resources that we could distribute and promote.
• Charli Hodgson, who joined the GC as a co-opted member just after the AGM in May, took the lead on this and she’s done an incredible job in a very short time, and I’d like to thank her, and the other members of the sub-committee for all the work that’s gone into it.
• We’ll shortly be launching a dedicated section on our website for members, as well as manning a Health and Wellbeing stand at the Conference and Expo in Solihull at the end of the month. Great work, everyone who’s been involved with the project.

Between the end of May and the end of July, DVSA held its consultation on proposed changes to the online booking system. As an association run by a Governing Committee, we were unable to advise members definitively on how to respond, but we did actively encourage all ADIs to make sure that they took the time to participate.

• These efforts seem to have paid off and initial feedback from DVSA suggests that around 11k ADIs/driving schools completed the survey.
• Outcomes and next steps due by end of Autumn
• We’ve also had it confirmed that DVSA has received Treasury approval to go ahead and build a new booking system and we’ll be available to work with DVSA as they go through that process. We’ll keep members informed, and obviously we’ll be representing members’ interests as they apply to that new booking system.
• In June, I attended the first in-person meeting of the DVSA-organised Car Driver Forum in Bristol.

This meeting comprised the three NASP associations, representatives from the national driving schools, and some other selected stakeholders.

• The objective of the forum is to allow DVSA to engage with a wider cross-section of the industry as it puts together its next five-year plan.
• Outcomes and shared goals from that meeting have been split into several Workstreams, and we will be hoping to progress some of the ideas contained within these Workstreams over the coming months.
• We’re not allowed to disclose any of the details from these meetings, but they are definitely future-focused, and there is definitely a desire in the room to push things forward in areas such as training, ADI qualification processes, and road safety.
• Lynne and I will be attending the next meeting in a couple of weeks’ time. We’ll keep members as informed as we can, when we can.

In addition to the car driver forum, Tom Stenson attended a dedicated Part Two – focused workshop in Nottingham in June, with DVSA and other stakeholders, and we expect some announcements soon on some changes to that particular test.

This Week, NASP September Meeting:

• NASP Report from this week’s meeting has just been approved for release, Headline figures! 1700 applications per month to DVSA and 1000 Trainee Licence applications per month.
• 5,200 P2 and P3 test on hold – 2,200 test delivered each month.
• L Test wait time average 22.2 weeks – slight increase
• Pass rate up to 50.69%
• Targeted Operations and Education: There are ongoing targeted operations with police forces to identify illegal instructors, educate candidates, and conduct proactive checks at test centres, including badge verification and car park checks.

Included in this week’s Cabinet Reshuffle, was the news that Lillian Greenwood – who attended and spoke at last year’s ADINJC Conference and Expo as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Roads and Transport, has been replaced by Keir Mather. I wrote to Mr Mather this week to introduce the ADINJC, and to invite him to our conference in a couple of weeks.

Along with NASP, earlier this week I attended a PACTS Road User Behaviour Working Party, chaired by David Crundall.

• The Road User Behaviour group is one of the main working parties organised by PACTS and it’s attended by all of the main academics working in the road safety field – Liz Box, Neale Kinnear, Tanya Fosdick, Shaun Helman, as well as representatives from the fleet market, motorcycle training, and it turns out that they’ve never had a driving instructor body attend.
• Road User Behaviour meets on a regular basis to assess current initiatives focused on improving driver and rider safety, and its aim is to influence policy where it can. It’s a good place to be if we are serious about making changes to this industry – it’s a way to hopefully influence things above the heads of the DVSA, and to gain support from outside of the industry for meaningful change.

And finally, this week I attended an interview with the National Audit Office which is conducting an investigation into DVSA’s handling of the test waiting time crisis.

The role of the National Audit Office is that of the UK independent public spending watchdog – it holds departments and other bodies responsible for spending public money, to account.

The focus of the investigation is:

• The scale and nature of the waiting times for booking practical car diving tests
• The root causes of the delays
• The Impact
• How the DVSA is responding to the delays

This provided an opportunity to pass on member frustrations and concerns in a very direct way. The NAO report will be released before the end of the year, and I’m fairly sure it will receive some media coverage. If it doesn’t, I’m sure we can help to make that happen.

That’s a summary of the industry work that we’ve been involved in – it’s been a busy summer.

• In terms of Governing Committee work, I provided details of most of the ongoing website initiatives at the AGM and this work remains ongoing.
• Lots of credit to Dan Hill, Liam Greaney, and Chris Porter for the seemingly never-ending work of updates, tweaks, page-building, blog writing, branding work and design that all goes on behind the scenes.
• The Training Team led by Tom Stenson has delivered a great year of high quality CPD workshops, including a selection of free, member-only Expert Sessions that have been very well attended.
• These free sessions, as well as the discounted rates for members really do represent excellent value given the low monthly membership fee.
• From the GC, we’ve had Lynne Barrie, David Allan, Leigh Brookes, and myself all deliver sessions, as well as Pennie Alexander, the Confident Drivers team, and next month we have an Expert Session on Making Tax Digital.

Tina continues to do a remarkable job as our Charities Liaison with Speed of Sight.

• There was a track day held at Mallory Park last week, and upcoming events are being held at 3 Sisters, Wigan on the 22nd September, and the final event of the year is at Anglesey on the 8th October.
• If you’d like to support Tina and Speed of Sight, please reach out or check out the website. And buy a raffle ticket.

The last thing to mention is our Conference and Expo which is being held this year in Solihull on the 28th September.

• Record number of instructors registered – and a lot of work behind the scenes carried out by Lynne Barrie and Sue Duncan – thanks as always to them.
• I think it’s going to be a great day – always is – hope to see some of you there.

In summary:

• Everyone on the Governing Committee is working very hard on the behalf of members
• Our membership numbers continue to grow
• We’re excited with everything we have planned for the rest of the year
• That concludes my Chairman’s Report.

Lynne Barrie thanked Stewart for his report and said she was enjoying working with him. She proposed acceptance of the report, which was seconded by Andrew Love and accepted unanimously.

Daryl Keightley asked if there was any progress on extending the 2 year qualification period for PDIs, but since this is in legislation it is unlikely to happen.

• Andrew Love cautioned that an extension could cause more issues and more consideration should be given to the qualifications to enter the process.
• Stewart said that there are 1700 people a month starting the process, with 1,000 a month trainee licences issued.
• There are currently 43,000 ADIs on the Register, with the highest number having been 49,000.

Stewart said that NJC receives a lot of ideas, some of which are sensible, and are passed on to DVSA.

Lynne said that there are more ADI Examiners, but the situation nationwide is still poor, and it is still difficult to get a 3rd test within the 2 year period.

• She said it needed someone to take a test case to court to challenge DVSA, but this would take money.
• Liam Greaney said that there are currently approximately 10,000 extra learner tests being conducted a month, which would take 4 years to clear the backlog.
• See Liam’s blog on this subject – The State of Our Industry

Stewart said that trainers and schools have an obligation to explain to people thinking of coming into the industry what the current situation is, and advising trainees correctly on applying for part 2 and 3 tests.

• He added that training for part 3 should be started as early as possible, and not after passing part 2.
• There are no figures on the number of people not taking on a trainee licence and training for free, and Lynne said that it should be made clearer as an option.
• NJC will include this within the PDI zone on the website. Kim Gibson said that not all PDIs are getting quality training.

Guest Speakers

Vickie Ambrose and Kim Gibson from Drive-Up training gave a presentation on ‘Developing Business-Ready Driving Instructors’. The slides for Vickie and Kim’s presentation can be found here.

Kate Monk delivered a presentation on her new initiative ‘My Learner Driver’ aimed at parents teaching their children to drive. Kate’s presentation can be found here.

Expo 2025

Lynne updated members on arrangements for the Conference and Expo on Sunday 28 September at Cranmore Park in Solihull.

• Currently there are 2,300 registrations
• Lynne said this year there are 100 VIP tickets for people wanting to upgrade to pay £25 for privileged parking, free tea/coffee from the green room, and reserved seating in the speaker rooms.
• There are more exhibitors than ever before, the NJC has a health & wellbeing stand within a health section, where St John’s Ambulance will be demonstrating CPR.
• DVSA have several officers in attendance on their stand, which is a useful opportunity for ADIs to ask questions and get information.

Open Forum

• Nick Ibbott asked whether DVSA could be asked to reinstate the show me/tell me question on washer bottles.
• Fiona Clarke said she has an EV and in 3 years has only had one examiner do a show me question under the bonnet.
• Dipod has been pushing the Expo.
• Daryl Keightley said he was unable to find mention by DVSA on the average learner hours.
• Liam Greaney asked for articles for the website – mention will be given to authors and their websites.
• Fiona Clarke said the process for DBS checks now invites you to engage in a webchat, which is only open during office hours.
• Vickie Ambrose asked what ADIs can do to support DVSA against illegal instruction.
• She said it was important to get the registration number of people not displaying licences, but people should not put themselves at risk.
• Lynne said the DVSA officer responsible would be at the Expo. Collaboration between the police & DVSA is being strengthened.
• Daryl said that the police are checking car parks for illegal instruction.
• A PDI asked about responses from PADI when sending information. Lynne suggested he ring them to ensure receipt.

Speed of Sight

£129 was raised from the raffle in aid of NJC’s charity Speed of Sight. Stewart thanked members for their support.

Dates of Meetings

Saturday 6 December 2025, Coventry
Saturday 28 February 2026, Coventry
Saturday 12 September 2026, Online
Saturday 5 December 2026, Coventry

Meeting Closed

Stewart closed the meeting at 13:15, thanking members for coming.