ODG02040 - Guidance for official drivers: Minimum age requirements for driving

Officers who drive vehicles as part of their employment must hold the appropriate licence.

The minimum ages for driving on British roads are 16 years for invalid carriages and mopeds, 17 years for agricultural or forestry tractors, small vehicles and motorcycles, and 21 years for medium/large sized vehicles, minibuses and buses.

ODG22010 lists the description of the vehicle and the minimum ages required for driving tests passed after 1 January 1997. For driving tests passed prior to 1 January 1997, line manager’s will need to check the official drivers ‘paper licence’ to establish if they have the relevant category descriptions for driving vehicles.

New Drivers

The new Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995 states that a driving licence is now automatically revoked if the driver builds up six or more penalty points within two years of passing their first driving test. This includes any penalty points they had before passing the test, which are still valid. They will still have to reapply for their driving licence as a learner driver and resit the driving test.

Further guidance can be also be found on the DVLA website.