In its 52nd report of Session 24-26, the cross-party House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has raised concerns about the practical implementation of the Draft Train Driving Licences and Certificates (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (the draft Regulations). The draft Regulations are intended to address the shortage of train drivers by lowering the age that people can be issued with a train driving licence in Great Britain from 20 to 18 years, with a view to making it possible for school leavers to pursue a career as a train driver from 16 years old.
The report concludes there are several issues which could impact the successful implementation of the policy and draws the draft Regulations to the attention of the House so that further questions can be answered by the relevant Minister.
The report highlights the following:
- The minimum age requirement for the train driving Level 3 apprenticeship is 18 years of age which means that despite the changes proposed by the draft Regulations, such apprenticeships would not be an option for 16 year old school leavers. Further change would be needed to allow this.
- Train driving apprenticeships usually take between 12-18 months to complete and there is often a waiting period before successful applicants can begin training. Therefore, even if 16yr olds were allowed to take up the apprenticeship, the draft Regulations aren’t clear as to what a 16-year-old would do before beginning training, given the requirement in England for under 18s to be in education or training. This lack of clarity around whether there would be an end-to-end training option from age 16-18 could make the train driver career path less viable for 16-year-old school leavers.
- There are existing shortages of training places and a backlog of trainee train drivers, which suggests that recruiting younger drivers will not help to address the train driver shortage. This is caused in part by train driver licensing legislation.
- The Department for Transport (DfT) failed to address the above implementation issues in the Explanatory Memorandum to the draft Regulations and the Memorandum initially contained some incorrect information around the length of the public consultation on the draft Regulations.
DfT told the Committee that it is working with industry to change the minimum age for train driving apprenticeships and looking to undertake further reforms to train driver licensing legislation.
Lord Watson of Invergowrie, Chair of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, said: “We have been told that there are considerable challenges facing the train driver workforce with a potential shortfall of about 2,500 drivers by 2030. While these draft Regulations are intended to address this issue, it remains unclear as to how the instrument will achieve its aims in practice.
“The Department for Transport should have addressed the issues raised in our report in the Explanatory Memorandum (EM) to the draft Regulations but failed to do so. The department has provided some responses and corrected some wrong information in the EM, but there remains a lack of clarity about implementation. It also appears that, for the draft Regulations to achieve their aims, further changes will be needed to the minimum age requirement for the train driving apprenticeship and the train driver licensing regime.
“Further questions on these issues should be addressed by the Minister and we have suggested that the House raise these with the Government so it can provide the necessary clarity.”
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