DVSA Consultation

A Minimum Learning Period might be coming. Are You Ready?

The government is consulting on mandatory minimum learning requirements for all learner drivers in Great Britain — including logbooks, minimum hours, and structured experience across different roads, times of day, and weather conditions. It has not passed yet, but instructors should start preparing now.

By DriveSidekick  |  20 April 2026  |  19 min read

Since 1934, learner drivers in Great Britain have been able to sit a practical driving test with no minimum time requirement — they just need a provisional licence and a valid theory test pass. That could be about to change in a significant way.

In January 2026, the Department for Transport opened a public consultation on introducing a formal Minimum Learning Period (MLP) for category B car licence holders. The consultation is asking for views from the public, driving instructors, road safety professionals, and anyone else with a stake in how new drivers are trained.

If an MLP is introduced, it will not just affect how long learners spend learning. It will fundamentally change how instructors plan, record, and evidence what they teach. Here is what we know, and what you need to start thinking about.

What the consultation is proposing

The government is not proposing a single measure in isolation. The consultation explores a package of requirements that would work together:

• A mandatory minimum time period between passing the theory test and being eligible to sit the practical test — similar to a waiting period already used in Australia and much of North America
• A minimum number of supervised driving hours, covering both professional lessons with an ADI and private practice with an eligible supervising driver
• A mandatory logbook that records hours completed, progress through a structured syllabus, and experience across a range of driving conditions
• A modular learning syllabus ensuring learners experience different road types, times of day, and weather conditions before they test

The consultation does not yet set fixed numbers for the minimum hours or time period — it is asking for recommendations on those thresholds. But the direction of travel is clear. Countries that have introduced similar schemes have typically required between 40 and 120 supervised hours, often over a minimum of three to twelve months.

What the logbook requirement would mean for instructors

This is where the practical impact on instructors starts to become significant. Under a structured MLP, the logbook is not just a record of hours — it is evidence that a learner has experienced a genuinely varied range of driving situations. Based on what the consultation describes, that is likely to include:

• Driving in different weather conditions — rain, low visibility, and potentially winter conditions
• Experience on different road types — residential streets, A-roads, dual carriageways, and rural roads
• Driving at night or in low-light conditions
• Completion of specific manoeuvres and driving scenarios tied to a structured syllabus
• A mix of accompanied professional lessons and private practice with a supervising driver

In practice, this means instructors would need to document each session in far more detail than most currently do. Ticking off a route or a manoeuvre is one thing. Recording that a learner has driven on a rural A-road in rain at dusk, and that this has been witnessed and logged, is quite another.

For instructors who already keep structured lesson notes, the transition will be manageable. For those who rely on informal records or verbal progress updates, this is a prompt to start building better habits now — before it becomes a requirement.

What it means for learners

If the MLP passes, learners will need to think about their learning journey differently. It will no longer be about accumulating enough hours to feel test-ready — it will be about systematically working through a structured programme and being able to prove it.

Private practice with a parent or guardian will count, but only if it is properly recorded in the logbook. Learners whose families can offer significant supervised practice time will potentially progress through the requirement faster. Those who rely entirely on professional lessons will need to factor in both the time and cost involved in meeting a higher hours threshold.

The consultation acknowledges this and is asking for views on whether exemptions or adjustments should apply for people with caring responsibilities, disability, or employment requirements. It is an important question — and one worth raising in your response.

Where this sits in the broader road safety picture

The MLP consultation does not exist in a vacuum. It follows the Department for Transport's wider road safety strategy, published earlier in 2026, which set a target of reducing deaths and serious injuries on UK roads by 65% by 2035. New driver safety is a core part of that agenda. Newly qualified drivers are significantly over-represented in collision statistics, and improving the quality and breadth of the learning experience is seen as one of the most effective levers available.

The DVSA and DIA have both previously signalled support for structured learner programmes, including digital logbooks. Industry bodies have been piloting elements of this approach for several years. The consultation is the formal mechanism for turning that groundwork into policy.

How instructors should start preparing

Nothing has been confirmed yet. The consultation runs until 11 May 2026, after which the government will publish a summary of responses and set out its next steps. Any changes would require primary or secondary legislation and an implementation period.

That said, the direction of travel is clear enough that it is worth acting ahead of any formal requirement. Here is what we would suggest instructors start doing now:

1. Start logging lesson content in more detail. Note which road types you covered, the weather conditions, the time of day, and which skills were practised. Even informal notes now will help you transition to a formal system later.
2. Talk to your learners about private practice. Under an MLP, supervised private practice is likely to count towards the requirement. Encouraging learners to do this — and to record it — will become part of the job.
3. Think about how you structure your lesson plans. A modular syllabus means deliberately varying the driving experience rather than repeating familiar routes. If you are not already routing learners through dual carriageways, rural roads, and night driving, now is the time to start building that in. It is also worth revisiting how you choose the right test centre for your learners — under an MLP, systematic preparation across road types becomes central to the process.
4. Look at logbook tools. Paper logbooks exist, but a digital system that can capture routes, conditions, manoeuvres, and timestamps will be far easier to manage — for you and your students. The right app should do most of the work automatically.

Have your say — before 11 May

This consultation is an opportunity for the people who teach driving for a living to shape how a Minimum Learning Period actually works. The questions being asked are genuinely open — on hours thresholds, exemptions, how private practice is validated, and how a logbook system would be administered. Those are not bureaucratic details. They will determine whether the MLP is workable in practice.

Whether you are in favour of an MLP or have serious concerns about the impact on your business and your learners, your response matters. A consultation that is dominated by one view will produce a policy skewed in that direction. The driving instruction community is large enough and experienced enough to have a meaningful impact here — but only if it participates. For context on the wider pressures learners are currently facing, see our overview of UK driving test waiting times in 2026.

At a glance: current vs. proposed