NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union has expressed deep disappointment that the Government’s Road Safety Strategy fails to address its long‑standing concerns about school minibus safety.
The strategy sets out plans to reduce deaths and serious injuries on Britain’s roads, including tightening rules for young and novice drivers and reviewing driving licences for higher‑risk groups of drivers. However, despite these commitments, it contains no measures whatsoever to tackle the well‑documented risks associated with school minibuses.
The NASUWT has a long-standing campaign to end the loophole that allows staff to drive minibuses carrying up to 16 pupils without any formal training or a full Passenger Carrying Vehicle (PCV) licence.
This issue was tragically highlighted by the 1993 M40 minibus crash, in which a teacher and 12 pupils were killed. Despite improvements to vehicle design, the fundamental cause of that crash – a teacher driving a minibus after a full working day, without specialist training remains unresolved.
Survey data from NASUWT members shows that teachers continue to be asked, and in some cases pressured, to drive school minibuses, with a significant proportion doing so without any training at all.
NASUWT is calling on the Government to:
- Require all school minibus drivers to hold a full PCV licence.
- End the Section 19 Permit loophole that allows untrained staff to drive minibuses.
- Ensure schools are properly funded to meet safe transport standards.
“The Government is right to take road safety seriously but it is indefensible that while rules for learner drivers are being tightened, there is still nothing to stop an untrained member of staff driving 16 children in a minibus.
“This loophole has been known for more than 30 years, has cost lives and must be closed. The Government had the opportunity in the Road Safety Strategy to take action yet failed to do so.
“Parents expect that when their children travel in a school minibus, they are being transported by someone with proper training and the right licence. The Government’s failure to act leaves pupils, staff and the public at unnecessary risk.”
