DSA’s National Driving and Riding Standards

Our aim in publishing these Standards is to contribute to DSA’s overall objective of reducing the number of people who are killed and seriously injured on our roads by describing good practice in the field of driver training as well as providing a benchmark for performance in underpinning lifelong driver development.

The National Driving and Riding Standards are based on a body of research and consultation which was undertaken for us by external consultants and involved input from many of our stakeholders. That work resulted in the Cat. A/P and Cat. B Competence Frameworks, which are also available on this page. The items listed in these frameworks link to a bibliography of the sources on which the consultants relied. At the present moment, for technical reasons, it is not possible to make those links available. However, we are planning to put up a revised version of this site as soon as possible which will allow anybody who is interested to look at those sources.

We have published the related Syllabi which set out, in broad terms, our thoughts about best practice in delivering the content of the standards. They have been developed from the National Standards and can be used by others who wish to develop their own.

The National Driving and Riding Standards represent our current best knowledge and understanding. They must remain live and meaningful. Therefore, we actively welcome questions about the Standards and suggestions about how they could be improved. In particular we should welcome any evidence, from research or practice, which will help us to make the Standards more robust. We intend to update the Standards on a regular basis, probably annually. However, if any safety critical issues are identified we shall, of course, respond immediately.