Mandatory lesson hours: what the government's consultation means for your income

The Department for Transport says it has consulted on potentially "the biggest change to the learning to drive journey since the introduction of the driving test 90 years ago". Its consultation, published in January 2026, asked whether learner drivers should face mandatory minimum requirements before they can take their practical test, including a minimum number of driving hours, a minimum waiting period between theory and practical, and a logbook.

Update, 28 September 2026: the consultation closed at 11:59pm on 11 May 2026. No government response has been published yet. The GOV.UK consultation page says "We are analysing your feedback".

While you wait for the outcome, it is worth knowing what the proposals would mean for your business, because the effect on ADI income cuts both ways.

What is being proposed

The Department for Transport's consultation document asks about five possible pre-test requirements, any or all of which could be combined:

1. A minimum time period A mandatory gap between passing the theory test and taking the practical test. The consultation does not propose a length: it asks respondents how long the period should be, and whether the theory certificate should last longer if one is introduced. Currently a learner can apply for a practical test as soon as they have a provisional licence and have passed the theory test.

2. A minimum number of driving hours A set number of car driving hours before a learner can take their practical test, "with an eligible supervising driver and/or an approved driving instructor". The consultation does not specify a number, and it does not say the hours must be with an ADI. It asks what the minimum should be.

3. A logbook to record learning A mandatory logbook to complete. The consultation asks whether respondents agree or disagree; it does not set out what the logbook would record or who would sign it.

4. A modular learning syllabus A mandatory syllabus to complete, so learners get experience in a range of conditions (night driving, different road types, varied weather) rather than leaving this to instructor discretion.

5. Mandatory e-learning E-learning that learners would have to complete before their test.

These proposals are independent of each other. The government could implement all five, some, or none. Nothing is law yet.

The stated reason: 273 people were killed in 2024 in collisions involving young car drivers aged 17 to 24.

The income case for mandatory hours

The instructor's case for minimums is that some pupils take tests with too few hours, fail, and blame the instructor or the system. Mandatory minimums would change that.

The undercooked pupil problem

The pattern is familiar. A pupil joins, takes 15 lessons, insists they are ready to test, books a date, fails, and then (sometimes) tells anyone who will listen that their instructor wasn't good enough. GOV.UK is clear that today "There's no minimum number of lessons you must have or hours you must practise driving."

The consultation document gives a sense of what typical learners do:

DfT adds that "there is likely to be a large variation" in the hours individuals spent. If a minimum of, say, 30 hours with an ADI were set (below the 37 to 52 hour averages in those studies), the learners who currently take fewer would be required to take more. If those hours had to be with an ADI, they are lessons bought from you.

The money: a worked example

Let us model what this means concretely. Assume a minimum of 25 professional hours is introduced, and that 30% of your new pupils currently take fewer than 25 hours before attempting a test.

For an ADI teaching 15 new pupils per year at £37/hour:

At 40 professional hours and 40% of pupils undercooked by 12 hours on average:

Both examples assume the minimum has to be met with an ADI. If supervised practice with family or friends counts towards it, the upside for instructors shrinks.

The pupil attrition benefit

There is a second, less obvious effect. Under the current system, a pupil who wants to test quickly can take 15 lessons, book a test, fail, and start shopping for a new instructor for a "top-up." That undermines your income and your reputation at once.

A minimum that had to be met with an ADI would change the maths of that shortcut. The pupil could still move to another instructor, but they could not test until the hours were done, so fewer would leave for a quick test on too few hours.

The income case against mandatory hours

Not all of the financial arguments point upward. There are three real concerns.

Admin load and compliance cost

A logbook requirement means record-keeping that goes beyond a lesson note in your diary software. If the logbook is a paper document, you are creating, tracking, and potentially certifying a physical record for every pupil. If it is digital, the question is which platform it sits on, whether it integrates with your existing tools, and what the liability is if it is disputed.

The time cost of this is real. If you spend an average of 10 minutes per lesson filling in a structured logbook for each pupil, and you teach 30 hours a week, that is 5 hours of additional admin per week. At £37/hour, the opportunity cost is £185 per week, or about £8,500 a year over 46 working weeks if it crowds out teaching time.

Whether any logbook is digital, works with the software you already use, and is quick to complete will decide most of that cost. The government response is where that detail will appear.

Test waiting time compounding

If a 6-month minimum period between theory pass and practical test is introduced, and learners in your area already wait close to six months between booking and test, the practical effect for many of them is small. They were already waiting that long.

But where the booking-to-test wait is short (Wales had a median of 7.3 weeks in August 2026, according to DVSA table DRT121G), a 6-month minimum period means learners are held in your diary for longer than they currently need to be. Some of this is financially beneficial (see above). But it also creates diary planning complexity: a longer, mandatory retention period means you carry more partially-trained pupils at once, which limits how many new pupils you can take on.

The worst case is a structural backlog: every learner in the country is forced into a 6-month pre-test period, creating a wave of demand that cannot be satisfied by the current number of ADIs and test slots. The test backlog that has plagued the system since 2020 would, under this scenario, be formalised into policy rather than resolved.

Pricing pressure on learners

A mandatory 30-40 hours of professional instruction at £36-£40 an hour (the most common price band, charged by 50.3% of ADIs in DVSA's October 2025 survey) represents £1,080-£1,600 before a learner can even attempt a test. For families already stretched by the cost of living, this is a significant additional barrier. The risk is not to instructors directly, but to demand: if the upfront cost of learning to drive rises, some potential learners may defer indefinitely, reducing the total market.

Ireland is the nearest comparison. Its Road Safety Authority requires learners to complete Essential Driver Training: 12 one-hour sessions with an Approved Driving Instructor, recorded in a logbook, and by law only an ADI can deliver them. Twelve hours is well below the 30-40 hours modelled here.

What the consultation asked

The consultation document set out 15 questions for ADIs and members of the public, including:

• Whether they agree or disagree with introducing further mandatory requirements beyond holding a provisional licence and passing the theory test, and which age of learner they should apply to
• Whether there should be a minimum time period between theory and practical tests, how long it should be, and whether the theory certificate should then last longer
• Whether there should be a minimum number of car driving hours, and what that number should be
• Whether a modular learning syllabus, a logbook and e-learning should be mandatory
• Who, if anyone, should be exempt
• Whether new requirements should apply to new drivers who lose their licence under the 6-point rule, or who are ordered by a court to retake the test

What is not changing (and what this is not)

The consultation is not about:

• The ADI standards check or your licence renewal: that process is unchanged
• Motorcycle, HGV or other vehicle licence categories: it covers category B (car) only
• Raising the driving test pass mark or changing the test format
• New post-test restrictions such as passenger limits: none of the 15 questions propose them

And it is not imminent law. Any change would need legislation or statutory guidance first, which takes time, so 2027 is the earliest realistic start if the government decides to go ahead. There is time to prepare.

What happens next

The consultation ran from 11:30am on 7 January 2026 to 11:59pm on 11 May 2026 on GOV.UK. It is now closed. The page says the Department for Transport is analysing the feedback and that the outcome will be published there. As of 28 September 2026, it has not been.

When the response lands, the details that matter most for your business are:

• Whether minimum hours, a minimum time period, or both go ahead
• The number of hours, and whether they must be with an ADI
• How any logbook works, who completes it, and what admin it adds
• The start date, and whether learners already in the system are covered

If minimum hours do go ahead and must be driven with an ADI, our worked examples come to roughly £1,850 to £2,660 a year for an ADI taking on 15 new pupils a year. If private practice counts towards the minimum, it could be much less. The risks (logbook admin, a longer queue to test, learners put off by the upfront cost) depend on detail the government response will have to settle.

The useful work now is in your own business: record hours and competencies properly today, so that whatever the response says about logbooks, your records are already in shape.

Any mandatory syllabus or logbook would make a clean record of each pupil's progress more important. Orbit's pupil management tools log lessons and DVSA syllabus progress for every learner in one place, and Orbit is free for driving instructors, with no card needed.