In order to legally accept payment in exchange for driving tuition an Instructor must hold (and display in the tuition vehicle) a valid licence issued by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA).

This licence can be either a 'Trainee Licence' which is pink in colour with a triangle shape on the front or a full 'Approved Driving Instructor' licence which is green with an octagon in place of the triangle denoting that the holder is a fully qualified Approved Driving Instructor

A qualified 'Approved Driving Instructor' has had to pass three tests with the Driving Standards Agency:

Qualified Instructors are check tested on a regular basis by the DSA and under a rather strange marking system, that runs from a Grade 1 to a Grade 6 - a Grade 4 is the lowest acceptable grade and a Grade 6 the highest grade possible. This ensures that any instructors not meeting the criteria on an ongoing basis are removed from the register (if the instructor achieves a grade lower than a 4 on a check test, he/she is retested shortly afterwards and if a 4 grading is not eventually achieved they are removed from the register). For this reason and also because there are bogus instructors out there who never held a licence in the first place you should always make sure that your instructor has a valid licence on display in his or her vehicle. You should be able to see the licence displayed somewhere on the front screen.

There are further optional qualifications available to ADI's but ALL driving instructors accepting payment for tuition MUST be on the ADI Register and the only proof of that is the ADI or PDI (trainee) Licence.