Community Transport Services: Minibus Drivers

Tessa Munt Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Freddie van Mierlo]

I thank my hon. Friend for her very sensible intervention. My own local authority in Oxfordshire also heavily supports community transport organisations. I am sure that her proposals were heard by the Minister.

Over the next five years, more than 3 million D1 licences are likely to be lost as drivers reach 70—equivalent to one in five of all D1 licences. We are therefore facing a ticking time bomb as qualified drivers age out at the top and are not replenished enough from below.

Without decisive action from the Government, there will be serious concerns for the future viability of community transport.

[Tessa Munt (Wells and Mendip Hills) (LD)]

I am a massive supporter of Mendip Community Transport. In fact, my village has a community transport minibus, which is an absolutely essential lifeline, particularly in such a rural area where we have no buses. What does my hon. Friend think about the fact that if someone wants to undertake a minibus driving test in my area, they must travel some long distance and the test can cost up to £2,000, which seems extraordinarily expensive?

[Freddie van Mierlo]

I thank my hon. Friend for that addition to the debate. I was aware of the costs, which I will come on to, but I had not been made aware previously of the distance that some drivers may need to travel to carry out a test. That would be an additional barrier to enabling volunteers to do what they love doing most.

Madam Deputy Speaker, you might reasonably ask, “Why don’t people just take the test?” A test is a perfectly reasonable thing to ask someone driving 7.5 tonnes of fast-moving metal to pass—we accept that; no one is disputing it—but it is how difficult and how costly that test is that matters. How proportionate is the test to the social benefits of community transport? How easy are we making it for people who want to do good in their community, giving up their time for others, to do so? If we make it too difficult, they will just say, “What’s the point?” and move on to something else. At the moment, drivers must pass an additional theory test, a practical test and a medical assessment, all to the tune of up to £2,000.

Setting a cost of up to £2,000 might make sense in terms of passing on the administrative costs of the testing regime to the customer. I can see how we might have got to that point rationally. The Minister may be able to confirm whether a profit is made on the testing regime; if that is the case, I ask him to look into that. I argue that the social and economic benefit of having more minibus drivers able to run local community services should be taken into account.

[Freddie van Mierlo]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention, which highlights just how widespread the issue is and how keenly it is felt in all corners of the country.

Rural constituencies like mine rely on volunteer transport to plug the gap between private motor vehicle usage and commercial for-profit bus companies. Many rural routes are not profit making and have no hope of being so. The alternative is clear: if we let community transport die a slow death, we will see more social isolation, with all the health and social care costs associated with that. We will also see councils come under pressure to step in with taxpayer-funded schemes and subsidies. At a time when the Government have cut my local authority’s funding, it is hard to see how that can happen. Why should it when we have a pool of people willing to volunteer? For the volunteers, it is rewarding work that gives meaning to people’s lives, providing an opportunity to give back and be part of something really special.

I put on the record my sincere gratitude for all the hard work that volunteers put in every day and the contribution they make. Two of those wonderful volunteers are John Pearman, the FISH transport co-ordinator, and David Whitehead, the chair of FISH volunteer centre. They do excellent work to co-ordinate half a dozen drivers and look out for opportunities to recruit new volunteers.

John told me how he found three potential new drivers, but once they had understood the costs and time needed to update their licence to D1 status, all withdrew their interest, even with the offer from Sonning Common health centre for free medical testing for volunteer minibus drivers. David and John therefore completely rely on the 47 to 69 age band, with the band becoming ever narrower each year.

When thinking about how to move forwards, the Government do not have to start from scratch. The 2022 call for evidence on driving licensing took views on the minibus licensing regime from over 2,000 respondents. Although most respondents supported a change in current licensing arrangements, no substantial actions have since been taken to improve the status.

The Government have pointed concerned parties towards exemptions that already exist for D1 licences. However, the Community Transport Association notes that those exemptions make no meaningful change in availability of drivers. The exemptions allow those with a standard driving licence issued post 1997 to drive a lighter minibus weighing up to 3.5 tonnes. However, nearly three quarters of all vehicles in the UK’s community transport fleet are minibuses with between 9 and 16 seats, often with weighty accessibility features. Larger vehicles give local charities, community groups and social enterprises the flexibility they need to operate effectively, with more affordable costs.

[Tessa Munt]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way for a second time. I would like to point out that a number of community minibuses are electric vehicles, and their batteries make them very much heavier, which, along with accessibility equipment such as wheelchair lifts, automatically take their weight way over the 3.5 tonne limit.

[Freddie van Mierlo]

Of course, we want to encourage a shift to more sustainable and greener forms of travel, while still maintaining a good cohort of drivers. I will not take any more interventions because I know we have to move on.

More than one in 10 organisations have changed their service delivery model, often replacing conventional minibuses with cars or lightweight minibuses, resulting in lower capacity, increased costs and operational complexity. However, drivers of those lighter vehicles are not eligible to be paid, unlike those with the standard D1 licence, adding further to the burden.

So how can we help community transport? The CTA has put forward a proposal. It is not a blanket minibus licence for all drivers—not a return to 1997. Instead, the CTA proposes a targeted intervention to allow drivers to acquire a D1 licence to drive a minibus for non-profit organisations. The licence would draw on minibus learning programmes that already exist and require the driver to complete a training-based upgrade accredited by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, similar to the minibus driver awareness scheme, or MiDAS, which is a national programme of quality-assured education and training for the community transport sector. This approach was supported by respondents to the Government’s 2022 call for evidence. The CTA proposal requires an online theory test, a short practical session, and on-road and medical assessments, but, crucially, with a cost of under £300. The proposal allows the number of drivers to be increased in a safe way, using an established information and learning assessment.

Will the Minister say in his remarks whether he has considered the CTA’s proposals? I caveat that by saying that I am not a road expert and the CTA’s proposals may not be 100% the answer, but surely the Government can come up with a regime that achieves both aims: safe roads and a thriving community transport sector. I look forward to the Minister’s remarks on the points that I have raised.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Simon Lightwood)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Henley and Thame (Freddie van Mierlo) on securing this debate and on raising this important subject. I am grateful to him for giving the House the opportunity to reflect on the enormously valuable contribution that community transport makes to communities across the country. I want to begin by putting on record this Government’s strong support for the community transport sector and our appreciation for the staff and volunteers who make those services possible.

I pay tribute to FISH, in this plaice, for doing a fantastic job. [Laughter.] It really does make a splash for all the right reasons. The people there are o-fish-ally doing a great job—I could not resist that, as the hon. Gentleman gave me a heads-up that he would mention the charity.

On a more serious note, community transport can provide a real lifeline, particularly for older and disabled people, those who are vulnerable or isolated and people living in rural areas where other public transport options are limited. It helps people get to work, education, healthcare and other essential services. Just as importantly, it allows people to see friends and family, take part in community life and maintain their independence. The scale of that contribution should not be underestimated.

Community transport operators providing around 13.8 million passenger journeys each year. This is ultimately not just a debate about driving licence categories or regulations; it is about people’s ability to get where they need to go and to remain connected to the communities in which they live. That is why the Government provide practical support to the sector. The Department for Transport provides the Community Transport Association with an annual grant to support its work with its members and the wider sector. We also make available up to £3.8 million each year to eligible community transport operators through the bus service operators grant, helping operators with their running costs. A 60% uplift has been added to community transport claims until 31 March 2027, with further support during the current period of increased fuel costs.

Our support is not simply about direct financial assistance. We want community transport to be properly recognised as part of the wider transport network. We encourage local authorities to consider community transport within their local transport planning and to look at how those services can complement conventional fixed-route bus services and improve connectivity. That is particularly important in places where community transport fills gaps that other transport services cannot easily fill.

I turn now to the specific issue that the hon. Member has raised today: the rules governing the driving of minibuses. I recognise very clearly the concern within the community transport sector about the availability of drivers with category D1 entitlement. Prior to 1997, someone obtaining a car licence was automatically granted the restricted category D1 entitlement—commonly known as D1(101)—allowing them to drive a minibus when it was not being driven for hire or reward. The automatic entitlement ceased for people passing their car test from 1 January 1997. Since then, drivers have generally needed to pass an additional test to obtain a category D1 entitlement, although there are limited circumstances in which a holder of a category B car licence may drive a minibus without a full D1 licence.

The practical consequences are that drivers who retain a category D1 through those so-called grandfather rights are gradually getting older, and the number of drivers with D1 is gradually reducing. I understand the concern that this creates for community transport operators, which have traditionally relied on this cohort of drivers. The CTA has made the case strongly that a diminishing pool of D1 drivers is making recruitment more difficult and imposing additional costs on organisations that need to train new ones. I want to acknowledge the constructive work that the association has done in bringing this issue to the Government and to Parliament; during Community Transport Week in October, the CTA held an event here in Parliament and launched its white paper, setting out its case for changes to the licensing arrangements. The Department is aware of that proposal and we are actively reviewing it.

I recognise the seriousness of the concern behind that work and the effort that the CTA has made to develop a practical proposal. At the same time, however, the Government must consider any proposed change to driver licensing arrangements very carefully. This consideration also takes place within the wider framework of the Government’s road safety strategy, which was published earlier this year. The strategy reiterates the Government’s commitment to reducing those killed and seriously injured on our roads, and to ensuring that road safety impacts are properly considered when developing transport policy. Any changes to driver licensing arrangements therefore need to be assessed in terms not only of accessibility, workforce availability and operational benefits, but also in terms of their implications for road safety outcomes.

I had a look before coming here tonight, and I can tell the House the statistics from 2025, the last full year of pass rates for D1. Of the 3,069 tests taken, 2,511 were passed but 552 were failed. Under some proposed changes, those without this D1 qualification could potentially be driving minibuses, and we can see how important safety is when considering the implications of any changes. Minibuses can carry up to 16 passengers in addition to the driver. They can weigh up to 5 tonnes and be driven at speeds of up to 70 mph. The responsibility placed on the person driving such a vehicle is therefore different from that involved in driving a private car. Also, many of the passengers who depend on community transport are themselves older, disabled or otherwise vulnerable. While I absolutely recognise the pressures facing operators, road and passenger safety must remain at the heart of our consideration of any changes to the licensing regime.

[Tessa Munt]

Can I ask the Minister how many accidents there have been involving community minibuses in the last two or three years, please? If he does not know, might he be able to write to me with that information? I realise this is a very serious matter, and I just wondered how many incidents there were.

[Simon Lightwood]

I commit to write to the hon. Lady on that matter, as I do not have the information to hand.

Of course, what I have said does not mean that the Government should close their mind to reform—quite the contrary—but it does mean that we must be satisfied that changes designed to make it easier to obtain the necessary entitlement do not introduce unacceptable risks for minibus passengers or for other road users.

That balance between flexibility and safety is not a new question. In 2022, the previous Government held a substantial call for evidence to look at potential reforms to driver licensing regimes, and one of the questions considered was whether people holding a category B car licence should be granted entitlement to drive category D1 minibuses. The review ran between August and October 2022, and deliberately sought evidence about whether reforms could widen the pool of minibus drivers while maintaining the safe use of our roads. The response demonstrated significant support for the change, but that is not by itself the same thing as evidence that the change can be made safely. The Department’s assessment of that exercise was that, although there was strong support for extending driving licence entitlement, the evidence presented was not sufficient to allow us to fully understand and assess the associated road safety risks. I understand that the Community Transport Association does not agree that the evidence currently available justifies maintaining the existing position. That evidence gap is, however, important. It is why the Department has continued to say that any potential relaxation of the D1 requirements needs to be considered alongside the implications for road safety.

I do not want the hon. Member for Henley and Thame to take from what I have said that the Government are insensitive to the problem he has described—far from it. We recognise the demographic issue affecting holders of D1 grandfather rights. We recognise what community transport operators are telling us about recruiting drivers. We recognise the argument that the costs and practicalities associated with obtaining a D1 entitlement may be particularly challenging for small, community-based and not-for-profit organisations. Through its proposal for reform, the Community Transport Association believes that it can address those pressures while providing appropriate safeguards. We will consider that contribution seriously, but we will also continue to place passenger and road safety at the centre of our consideration.

I hope Members across the House would agree that those two objectives—of supporting the sustainability of community transport and ensuring that people can travel safely—should not be regarded as opposing ambitions. Our task now is to determine how best to secure both.

Question put and agreed to.