Oleur Rashid v Registrar of Approved Driving Instructors

Facts

The appellant, Oleur Rashid, was training to qualify as an approved driving instructor. He had held two successive trainee driving instructor licences covering twelve months in total, from 2 December 2024 to 1 December 2025, and on 2 December 2025 applied for a third. The Registrar of Approved Driving Instructors refused that application on 3 February 2026 under s.129(3) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, on the grounds that the appellant had produced no evidence of lost training time during his second licence period and could have delayed applying; that twelve months (plus the further period pending appeal) was more than adequate for the sole purpose of a trainee licence; that Parliament had not intended a trainee licence to issue for however long an applicant took to pass the Part 3 test; that the trainee licence system must not become an alternative to registration as an approved driving instructor; and that a trainee licence was not required in order to sit, and its refusal was no bar to taking, the Part 3 test. The appellant appealed to the First-tier Tribunal on 15 February 2026, relying on exceptional, time-limited personal circumstances: the death of his father on 3 November 2024, shortly before his first licence period began, which left him supporting his family, and his brother's diagnosis with a stage 4 cancer in February 2026, with a consequent temporary deterioration in his mental health. He had failed the Part 3 test on 28 November 2025 and 14 April 2026, his third and final attempt being booked for 8 September 2026.