How to renew your ADI badge: timeline, fee, criminal record check and what happens if it lapses

Your ADI registration lasts 4 years. Renewing it costs £300 on GOV.UK. The catch is the step that has to happen first.

You need a new criminal record check before you can renew, and GOV.UK says it "normally takes around 3 months but can sometimes take longer" (GOV.UK, manage your ADI registration). Meanwhile the renewal itself can only be done in the month your registration runs out. Leave the check late and you run out of month.

This guide covers England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland is at the end.

The renewal timeline

Sources: criminal record check for ADIs, renew your ADI registration and manage your ADI registration, all GOV.UK, checked September 2026.

Step 1: get the criminal record check

This is the part to start early. You cannot reuse a check you already have. GOV.UK is blunt about it: "you must get a new one" (GOV.UK).

The check is now run through Complete Background Screening (CBS). We covered the change of provider in our ADI DBS renewal post. What GOV.UK says about the process today:

• DVSA emails you 6 months before your registration is due to expire.
• CBS then emails you a link to apply online.
• If the link has not arrived within 2 weeks of the DVSA email, contact CBS.
• It costs £5.40 to apply, by debit or credit card.
• You prove your identity with documents such as your passport, your driving licence, or a utility bill or bank statement less than 3 months old.
• If you cannot verify your identity online, you can do it at a Post Office for £12.
• The check is sent to you by post. If it contains criminal information, DVSA will contact you as well.

Source: GOV.UK, get a criminal record check to continue being a driving instructor.

A record does not automatically end your registration. The ADI register guide says the Registrar weighs things like how relevant and serious an offence is, how long ago it happened and whether there is a pattern, and "will write to you giving you the opportunity to explain your circumstances before making a final decision". The law backs that up: before refusing a renewal, the Registrar must give you written notice and 28 days to make representations (Road Traffic Act 1988, section 127).

Step 2: renew online in your expiry month

The GOV.UK renewal service is for ADIs whose registration "runs out this month". Its words: "you cannot renew earlier". It is open from 6am to 11:30pm.

Before you start, you need:

• your DVSA online user ID and password
• a criminal record disclosure number that you got within the last 6 months
• your driving licence number, if you are letting DVSA use your photocard photo
• a debit or credit card for the £300 fee

Your user ID is on every letter DVSA sends you. It is not the same as your ADI personal reference number. If you cannot find it, request it from DVSA with your driving licence number.

Still on an old paper licence? You also have to print the final screen, send it to DVSA, and include a passport-sized photo with your ADI personal reference number written on the back.

The 6-month rule on the disclosure number is why the timing works if you act on the CBS email promptly. Apply when the link arrives, allow the 3 months GOV.UK quotes, and the number is still valid when your expiry month comes round.

Problems with the online form go to customerservices@dvsa.gov.uk.

What renewal costs

Sources: ADI fees and criminal record check for ADIs, GOV.UK. Across a 4-year registration that is £76.35 a year. A replacement badge, if yours is lost or stolen, is £3.

The new code of practice declaration

On 23 September 2026 DVSA published a new mandatory driving instructor code of practice. It will be introduced "sometime between late 2026 and early 2027" and replaces both the ADI register guide and the current voluntary code. No exact start date has been given yet.

Once it is in force, you must declare that you have read and agreed to it when you renew your registration. The same applies when you apply to become an instructor or apply for a trainee licence. If your expiry month falls after the start date, that declaration is part of your renewal. Our code of practice guide goes through the rest of the code.

Two parts of the code matter here. It says you are unlikely to be considered fit and proper if you have been disqualified from driving within the last 4 years, or have received 5 or more penalty points from motoring convictions or fixed penalty notices. And you must tell DVSA within 7 days if you are the subject of an allegation, or cautioned or convicted of an offence, including motoring offences. The contact it gives is the DVSA criminal records team at crt@dvsa.gov.uk, and it says reporting late "may also be treated as misconduct".

The current ADI register guide, updated the same day, already says the Registrar "has refused applications or removed an ADI from the register when they've had 5 or more penalty points within the last 3 years". The new code's penalty point line gives no time period.

Standards checks and renewal

A standards check is not part of the renewal application. The renewal service does not ask for one.

How often you get one is less clear. The GOV.UK standards check page still says "You usually have an ADI standards check every 4 years." DVSA's Director of Enforcement wrote on 15 September 2026 that "In 2024/25, most ADIs did not receive a standards check" and "There's no fixed time for when you might be called for a standards check, so it could happen at any point" (Despatch blog). The same post says DVSA has been increasing the number it carries out.

So do not assume one is due because your badge is. But if the letter arrives, book it. One of the legal conditions for renewal is that you have not refused a test or assessment you were required to take during your 4-year registration (Road Traffic Act 1988, section 127(3)). The register guide also says you can be removed if you fail to attend or refuse a standards check. Our posts on what can trigger a standards check and how to prepare for one cover the rest.

If your registration has expired

It is illegal to charge for driving lessons unless you are registered or hold a trainee licence (ADI register guide). Once your registration runs out, paid lessons stop until you are back on.

What happens next depends on how long it has been.

Within 12 months of expiry

You can re-register through the same GOV.UK service. You still need a new criminal record check first, and it is still £300.

More than 12 months after expiry

GOV.UK says you "need to reapply to become a driving instructor" (manage your ADI registration). That is the full step-by-step route new applicants follow, including the qualifying tests: Part 1 is £81, Part 2 is £111 and Part 3 is £111, then £300 for your first badge (ADI fees). Our how to become a driving instructor hub and full guide to qualifying cover that route, and ADI Part 2 test availability explains why test dates are the slow part right now.

If the new badge has not arrived

GOV.UK does not publish a turnaround time for the renewed badge. What it does say is that you must display your badge in the passenger-side edge of the front windscreen when you give lessons, and that you can be prosecuted for using an invalid badge (GOV.UK).

So if your expiry date is close and nothing has come, chase it rather than wait:

• Stuck at the criminal record check stage: contact CBS.
• Stuck after paying the £300: contact DVSA's ADI registration team at padi@dvsa.gov.uk or on 0300 200 1122, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. Webchat and WhatsApp are listed on the same GOV.UK page.

The phone line is quicker with your fast track code. If you do not have one, email customerservices@dvsa.gov.uk with your driving licence number, instructor number and date of birth (GOV.UK fast track service).

While you are there, check your address. You must update your registration within 7 days of changing your name or address (GOV.UK), and a badge posted to an old address will not reach you.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has its own process. ADI registration there is run by the DVA, and the criminal record check goes through AccessNI rather than CBS. Start at nidirect.

If a standards check letter lands in the same year as your renewal, the free standards check calculator lets you score a practice lesson across all 17 competencies first.