The Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (Amendment No. 3) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026

Explanatory note

Reproduced verbatim from the instrument as published on legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). The note is prepared by the responsible government department and is not part of the instrument itself.

These Regulations amend the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 in order to facilitate the introduction of Graduated Driver Licensing and to introduce changes resulting from a review of the driving test.

Graduated Driver Licensing (“ GDL ”) is designed to provide new drivers and riders with experience and skills over time and in low-risk environments. It will apply to learners and newly qualified drivers for category B motor vehicles (cars and light goods vehicles) and category A, A1 and A2 motor bicycles.

Regulation 2(2) and (3) provide for the exemption of certain people from the need to have held a provisional licence for not less than 6 months immediately before the date on which they are to take the practical test of competence to drive a category B motor vehicle.

Regulation 2(4) amends the definition of an “appropriate licence” to ensure that those holding a provisional licence issued in Great Britain (with a few exceptions) have no entitlement to be tested for category B motor vehicles or category A, A1 and A2 motor bicycles without completing the appropriate GDL process.

Regulation 2(5) provides for the introduction of the approved programmes of training and sets out what a person must do in order to complete the relevant programme of training. It also sets out the charge associated with obtaining the logbook which must be used to record the completion of the relevant approved programmes of training.

Regulation 2(5) further provides for exemptions from the need to complete a logbook in certain circumstances and sets out the period of validity of a logbook.

As a result of a GDL related review of the driving test, regulation 2(6) amends Parts 1, 2 and 5 of Schedule 7 to allow for the eyesight check to be carried out under artificial light although in practice that option will not be implemented immediately. It also reinserts Parts 5 to 7 of Schedule 7 which were previously omitted in error.

Regulation 2(7) inserts a new Schedule 10C which sets out the content of the relevant programmes of training.

An Explanatory Memorandum has been produced and is available from Driving, Vehicle and Road Safety Policy Division, Department for Infrastructure, 3 rd Floor James House, 2-4 Cromac Avenue, Belfast BT7 2JA or online alongside this Statutory Rule at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr