Learner safety
How to check a driving instructor
A business profile, website or Google rating is useful discovery information—but it is not proof that an individual is an approved instructor.
Great Britain
Use the official GOV.UK driving-school and instructor finder. The public finder is opt-in, so an instructor may be approved without appearing there. Ask the instructor to show the badge they display while teaching and read the official guidance before paying.
Northern Ireland
Use the nidirect driving-instructor service, which is provided for the Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA). The Northern Ireland system is separate from DVSA in Great Britain.
Before booking
- Confirm the instructor's full name and the driving school they work with.
- Ask whether the quoted price covers the lesson length you expect.
- Confirm manual or automatic transmission, pickup area and cancellation terms.
- Never treat a pass-rate statistic for a test centre as an individual instructor's pass rate.
Important: FindADrivingSchool does not have private access to DVSA or DVA licensing records and does not label an instructor approved unless a separate, documented verification process supports that claim.