Marta Baiba v The Registrar of Approved Driving Instructors

Facts

The appellant, Marta Baiba, was a trainee driving instructor who had been licensed since 3 March 2025. She was granted a trainee licence under section 129 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 for a six-month period, and then a second such licence, but at the end of the relevant period the Registrar of Approved Driving Instructors refused to grant her a third. The Registrar's decision of 26 March 2026 was, in summary, that she had not passed the final part of the ADI qualifying examination within the relevant period and that insufficient evidence of loss of training time had been supplied, so that she had had long enough to progress. In her notice of appeal dated 30 March 2026 the appellant said she had only had the chance to take one test in the time allowed by her licences; she accepted that there was a shortage of examiners but argued that this was a reason for allowing three licences, and she pointed to her 32 satisfied students and told the Registrar she would struggle financially without her licence. The Registrar's response was that she had failed her Part 3 examination once, that a test had been due on 22 July 2026 with no information supplied about it, and that her theory test had not lapsed. The appeal was determined on the papers.