An ADI holds a personal entry on the DVSA register. That entry is what makes paid car instruction lawful, since only a registered ADI or the holder of a trainee licence may charge for driving lessons in a car. Registration produces an ADI number and a registration certificate, commonly called the badge, and DVSA requires the badge or trainee licence to be displayed while giving paid instruction. DVSA also runs a public listing, Find driving schools, lessons and instructors, where ADIs choose for themselves whether to appear and may declare their grade. Registration belongs to the instructor and travels with them between franchises.
Entry runs through three DVSA qualifying tests. Part 1 covers theory and hazard perception and carries unlimited attempts. Part 2 tests driving ability and part 3 tests instructional ability, each capped at three attempts before the whole process restarts. The part 3 test has to be booked within two years of passing part 1, and registration has to follow within 12 months of passing part 3. Candidates must be 21 or over, have held a full licence in the relevant category for at least three years, must not have been disqualified in the previous four years, must pass a DBS check and must satisfy the registrar that they are a fit and proper person. The registrar has refused or removed applicants who accumulated five or more penalty points within three years. Fees as at 6 September 2026: part 1 £81, part 2 £111, part 3 £111, first certificate £300.
Once part 2 is passed, a candidate may apply for a trainee driving instructor licence, £140 as at 6 September 2026, valid for six months. This is what puts a PDI into a live diary and lets a school charge for their lessons before part 3 is attempted. The applicant must already have completed at least 40 hours of instructional training with a qualified ADI, ten of those hours in a car. During the licence, the trainee must either be supervised for 20 per cent of all lessons given or complete at least 20 hours of further training. A second licence can be applied for after the first expires, though it is not granted as a matter of course. The trainee licence must be displayed during paid instruction in the same way as a full badge.
Registration lasts four years and renewing it is the instructor's own responsibility, at £300 as at 6 September 2026, with a fresh DBS check every cycle. Cautions and convictions, penalty points included, must be reported in writing to the ADI Registrar within seven days. DVSA usually carries out a standards check every four years: an examiner watches a lesson with one of the instructor's own pupils for around 45 minutes and scores 17 competencies from 0 to 3, giving a total out of 51. 43 to 51 is grade A, 31 to 42 is grade B, 30 or below is a fail. A score of 7 or less in the risk management group is an automatic fail, as is a lesson the examiner stops on safety grounds. Two further attempts are permitted, and a third failure means removal from the register and re-sitting the qualifying tests.
For a school with more than one instructor, ADI status is a set of dates the diary has to respect, so start by checking that the instructor record holds the ADI number alongside registration expiry, DBS date, standards check due date and, for trainees, the licence end date, with reminders that fire months ahead, because a criminal records check has to be back before the renewal application goes in. Check whether the diary will block or flag lessons booked beyond an expiry date. For trainee licences, ask whether individual lessons can be marked as supervised and counted automatically against the 20 per cent condition, or whether that tracking falls back to a spreadsheet. For standards checks, look for per-lesson pupil progress records tied to a named pupil and exportable. Finally, check the permissions model: instructors should see their own diary and pupils, while the owner needs a single view of registration and standards check dates across everyone, plus a place to log a reported caution or conviction and the date it was sent.
All rules, time limits and fees are taken from DVSA guidance on GOV.UK (Become a car driving instructor, the ADI register guide, ADI fees, Get a trainee driving instructor licence, and ADI standards check) and were checked on 6 September 2026; the fees quoted are those published at that date and DVSA revises them periodically.