Mohammed Hassan v Registrar of Approved Driving Instructors

Facts

The appellant, Mohammed Hassan, was seeking to qualify as an approved driving instructor and had held trainee driving instructor licences. On 23 February 2026 he applied to the Registrar of Approved Driving Instructors for a further, third, trainee licence. On 12 March 2026 he made representations that there was a lack of availability of Part 3 test dates. By a decision dated 9 April 2026 the Registrar refused the application. The Registrar's grounds were that the appellant had provided no evidence of lost training time or a lack of pupils; that, on the Registrar's account, he had already had the benefit of trainee licences for 24 months, with the existing licence remaining valid until the appeal was determined; that Parliament did not intend a trainee licence to be issued for however long it took a candidate to qualify; and that a trainee licence was not required to take a Part 3 test. The appellant appealed, saying that he had not had enough time to take all three Part 3 attempts, that he had failed his first attempt on 15 December 2025 while his second was on hold, that test dates were scarce, and that without a licence he would become out of touch and out of practice. The Registrar responded on 15 July 2026, noting that a second attempt was booked for 5 August 2026. The appeal was determined on the papers with the agreement of the parties.