Set up a drink-drive rehabilitation course
How to set up a drink-drive rehabilitation course, applying for approval, fees you have to pay and how you'll be monitored.
Applies to England and Scotland
You can apply to provide courses to drink-drive offenders to help stop them from reoffending.
Offenders can be offered a rehabilitation course to reduce their driving ban if:
- they’re found guilty of a drink-drive offence
- their ban is for 12 months or more
Their ban will be reduced if they complete the course within a certain time. The ban is usually reduced by a quarter.
Offenders guilty of drug-drive offences cannot be offered a drink-drive rehabilitation scheme course.
How to set up a drink-drive rehabilitation course
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Apply to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) to have your course approved. Include details about your proposed course, and the fee of £1,000. You have to show you can run enough courses to meet demand.
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Run courses in the location you’ve specified once you’re approved. You’ll need to issue certificates to offenders who complete the course, and notices to those who don’t.
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Send a report every 3 months about the courses you’ve run. Include a fee of £7 for every offender who completed a course.
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Reapply for approval after 7 years if you want to continue providing courses.
Check if running drink-drive rehabilitation courses is right for you
Before you apply, decide if it’s practical to provide drink-drive rehabilitation courses.
Consider things like:
- how many courses are already available in the areas you want to cover
- how many offenders are being referred in those areas
- whether you can show that you’re able to run courses successfully
- your fees - you can charge up to £250 for a course - but it has to be affordable to offenders
Apply for course approval
To apply to get your course approved, you need to send:
- a course approval application form
- a ‘scheme of control’ (this sets out how you’ll make sure you provide high-quality courses)
- other supporting documents
Check the before you fill in the application form.
Send your applications and supporting documents to DVSA by email or post.
DVSA drink-drive rehabilitation course approvals
[email protected]
Suite 208, Cubix
Noble House
Capital Drive
Linford Wood
Milton Keynes
MK14 6QP
What happens next
You’ll get a confirmation email to let you know DVSA has got your application. It will be processed within 30 working days.
DVSA will contact you if anything is missing from your application.
You’ll lose the £1,000 application fee and the application will be sent back to you if you don’t supply the missing information within the 30 working day period.
Appeal against DVSA’s decision
You can appeal to DVSA within 28 days if it refuses your application. DVSA will take your appeal into account and tell you its decision.
If you still disagree with the decision, appeal to the General Regulatory Chamber.
Your case will be dealt with by a tribunal in the General Regulatory Chamber.
The tribunal is independent of the government. It will listen to both sides of the argument before reaching a decision.
Scheme of control
You need to complete a scheme of control. This is the way your organisation will make sure the courses it provides are of a high standard.
It needs to give examples of what you’ll do to reduce risk in these areas:
- operation
- course plans
- course consistency
- course evaluation
- trainer selection
Check the .
Run your courses when you’re approved
You need to:
- book offenders on to your course
- register participants and check their identities
- train and educate them using your approved course
- collect feedback and evaluate your course
- give certificates of completion and notices of non-completion to participants
- manage any complaints about your course
Send reports about your courses and pay fees
You need to send reports to DVSA every 3 months about the courses you’ve run. These should include:
- the number of referrals to your course, and the number completed and not completed
- which areas of the country they were held in
- the dates, start and end times, and trainers used for each course
- details of any new trainers and their qualifications/experience
You’ll also need to pay the £7 fee for each offender who completes a course.
Being inspected and monitored
You’ll normally be inspected within a year of being approved to run drink-drive rehabilitation courses.
DVSA will agree a date with you, and tell you what they want to see during the inspection.
A DVSA auditor will:
- check that the information you gave in your application is correct
- if necessary, give feedback to help you improve
You can prepare for a course audit by downloading:
After the initial inspection
You’ll get a report from DVSA after your inspection, which will confirm if:
- your course and arrangements meet the rules and you can continue to provide drink-drive rehabilitation courses
- your course or arrangements don’t meet the rules, what changes to make, and a deadline for making them
If your course hasn’t met the requirements, you’ll need to give proof that any changes needed have been made in the time given.
Further inspections
You’ll get at least one more inspection during the time you’re approved.
DVSA will usually agree a date with you, and tell you what they need to see.
If you’ve been told to make changes
DVSA might suspend or withdraw your approval if you don’t make the changes. You’ll get 28 days’ notice if they do this.
You’ll need to give proof that any changes needed have been made by the deadline you’re given.
Your course approval can be withdrawn straight away if there are serious problems, for example, if DVSA find serious misconduct. You’ll be told the reasons why if this happens.
Appeal against DVSA’s decision
You can appeal to DVSA within 28 days if you’re told that your centre or course approval might be suspended or withdrawn. DVSA will take your appeal into account and tell you its decision.
If you still disagree with the decision, appeal to the General Regulatory Chamber.
Your case will be dealt with by a tribunal in the General Regulatory Chamber.
The tribunal is independent of the government. It will listen to both sides of the argument before reaching a decision.
Report a change to your organisation or approved course
Tell DVSA if any of your organisation’s contact details change or you make any significant changes to the course content.
DVSA drink-drive rehabilitation course approvals
[email protected]
Suite 208, Cubix
Noble House
Capital Drive
Linford Wood
Milton Keynes
MK14 6QP
Changes to your legal status
Your approval will end if the legal status of your organisation changes. For example, if you change from a business partnership to a limited company.
Your new organisation would have to apply for approval in the normal way.
Reapply for course approval after 7 years
Your course approval will last for 7 years.
You’ll need to reapply if you want to continue running courses after that. Apply at least 30 working days before your current approval runs out.
Complain about the scheme or another provider
If you have a complaint about another course provider, try to solve it directly with them.
Contact DVSA if you aren’t able to sort things out.
Complain about DVSA
Contact DVSA if you want to complain about the way it does things.
Drink-drive rehabilitation course complaints
[email protected]
Complain about the courts or HMCTS
If you have a complaint about a court or HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS), send it to the relevant court regional support unit. You can get the contact details from ADDAPT.
Contact HMCTS if you’re not happy with the response.
More information
The following legislation is about the scheme and drink-drive offenders:
Updates to this page
Published 13 September 2016Last updated 18 April 2024 + show all updates
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Added self-assessment checklist and template to record your internal quality assurance checks.
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Added guidance on what to include in a scheme of control and how to fill in the drink-drive rehabilitation course application form.
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Updated 'Apply for drink-drive rehabilitation scheme course approval' form.
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Updated the address for JAUPT.
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Updated the form to apply for drink-drive rehabilitation scheme course approval with the latest version.
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Updated with the latest version of the application form.
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Updated with the latest version of the application form to get a drink-drive rehabilitation scheme course approved.
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Added information about how to appeal against a decision made by DVSA.
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Updates to contact details, as the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency now uses the Joint Approvals Unit for Periodic Training (JAUPT) to help approve and monitor courses.
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First published.