Recognised Blue Light Responder Qualifications
Driving Standards Scoping Document
HPAC’s standards for blue light driving, in one document.
NHS Ambulance Service
Internal NHS Ambulance Service emergency blue light responder certificate.
More informationEdexcel / IHCD / BTEC
Edexcel / IHCD Advanced Ambulance Driving (D2) / BTEC Level 3 in Emergency Ambulance Driving.
More informationFutureQuals
FutureQuals FAQ Level 3 Certificate in Emergency Response Ambulance Driving.
More informationQualsafe
Qualsafe Level 3 Certificate in Emergency Response Ambulance Driving (RQF) (CERAD).
More informationPolice and Fire & Rescue
DTAG-approved ambulance blue light bridging course for Police and Fire & Rescue Service personnel.
HPAC can only accept blue light certificates or training recognised by the AACE-endorsed Driver Training Advisory Group (DTAG) or a statutory emergency ambulance service provider within the United Kingdom, British Crown Dependencies or British Overseas Territories. Typically, these are issued by the statutory ambulance service provider or a regulated external training provider such as Qualsafe (L3 CERAD) or FutureQuals (L3 CERAD).
NHS Ambulance Service
For clarification, an NHS Ambulance Service means:
- (a)an NHS trust or NHS foundation trust established under the National Health Service Act 2006 which has a function of providing ambulance services;
- (b)an NHS trust established under the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006 which has a function of providing ambulance services;
- (c)the Scottish Ambulance Service Board.
Blue light driver requirements
Police or Fire & Rescue certificates
If you hold a Police or Fire & Rescue blue light certificate, we can add the vehicle classes it covers to your HPAC profile: a blue light car, and a Category C appliance where your certificate includes one.
To be added for blue light ambulances (Category B or C1), you must also have completed a DTAG-approved ambulance blue light bridging course. These courses are generally provided by NHS Ambulance Trusts or through a DTAG-approved, Ofqual-accredited Level 3 CERAD conversion course from awarding bodies such as FutureQuals and Qualsafe.
Points on your licence
If your driving licence has seven or more penalty points, we will not be able to add you to the Blue Light Register* or show you as a blue light driver on your HPAC profile.
Driving licences are revalidated with the DVLA every 12 weeks. A driver whose licence is suspended, who is disqualified from driving or who has seven or more penalty points is removed from HPAC's blue light driver register, and linked organisations are notified.
It is the registrant's responsibility to tell us when the points on their licence fall below seven if they wish to be added or re-added to the Blue Light Register.
HPAC-recognised 4x4 emergency response driver entitlement
You must supply evidence of having completed specialised training in the operation of 4x4 vehicles, together with a DTAG-recognised blue light driving qualification. If no 4x4 training certificate is supplied in your blue light evidence section, 4x4 will not be included on your HPAC ID card, and 4x4 will be removed as a blue light vehicle class from your profile if you have selected it.
HPAC reserves the right to reject a 4x4 course if we are unable to verify the legitimacy, quality or content of the course, or of the company named on any certificate supplied as evidence.
Category C
You must supply evidence of having completed specialised training for blue light response in vehicles over 7.5 tonnes, for example a HART vehicle or fire appliance.
*A registrant does not need to be on the Blue Light Register to appear on the public register for their primary clinical grade. For example, an EMT may register as a non-blue light driver. However, if a registrant is removed from the Blue Light Register because of conduct that endangers themselves or the public, the case may be referred to a fitness to practise review panel.
Our approach to driver training
One of the underpinning principles of HPAC is to simplify and assist NHS Ambulance Trusts (and the wider sector) in standardising practices across the UK. In driver training, this means our focus is ambulance-centric. It is not, therefore, the function of HPAC to recommend qualifications for acceptance.
Should NHS Ambulance Trusts decide in future to accept a currently unaccepted qualification for this role, applicants who hold it are free to apply to the register. Equally, should the NHS withdraw recognition or acceptance of a currently accepted qualification, HPAC would no longer be able to maintain that registration on our system.
Now live
Registrants who hold blue light response qualifications now appear on the Blue Light Register
The Blue Light Register is a public record of verified emergency-response drivers, operated under HPAC's governance. Registration with HPAC automatically enrols clinicians who hold compliant blue light response qualifications. There is nothing separate to apply for.
- Listing is automatic via HPAC registration, at no additional cost
- Shows the vehicle categories recorded for blue-light response
- GB licences are checked with the DVLA automatically, and a compliant licence carries zero to six penalty points
- Anyone can look up a responder by surname or registration number, free and without an account
- Records are updated via HPAC: a registrant who is no longer eligible is removed from the register until they are eligible again
- A registrant can ask to be removed from public listing at any time
Visit the Blue Light Register
bluelightregister.uk — check a responder in a few seconds.
Legal background
Section 87 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984
Exemption of fire brigade, ambulance and police vehicles from speed limits (England and Wales)
(1) No statutory provision imposing a speed limit on motor vehicles shall apply to any vehicle on an occasion when it is being used for fire and rescue authority, for ambulance purposes or police purposes, if the observance of that provision would be likely to hinder the use of the vehicle for the purpose for which it is being used on that occasion.
(1A) Subsection (1) above applies in relation to a vehicle that, although not being used for ambulance purposes, is being used for the purpose of providing a response to an emergency at the request of an NHS ambulance service.
(1B) In subsection (1A), "an NHS ambulance service" means—
(a) an NHS trust or NHS foundation trust established under the National Health Service Act 2006 which has a function of providing ambulance services;
(b) an NHS trust established under the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006 which has a function of providing ambulance services;
(c) the Scottish Ambulance Service Board.
Section 50 of the Deregulation Act 2015
Ambulance purposes were considered in the case of DPP v Issler, in which an ambulance was described as follows:
"the vehicle had to be designed or adapted so that it was capable of conveying sick, injured or disabled persons and to do so with a frequency such that the core activity might fairly be designated as its primary use."
Critically, this approach focused on the sole or primary use, not what the vehicle was being used for on the day. It was ruled that a car could never fulfil the definition of an ambulance, as the existing legislation was held to be correct that:
"Ambulance" means: "A Vehicle which is constructed or adapted for, and used for no other purpose other than, the carriage of sick, injured or disabled people to or from welfare centres or places where medical or dental treatment is given and is readily identifiable as a vehicle used for the carriage of such people by being marked "Ambulance" on both sides."
Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 1997
An "Ambulance" is:
"A Vehicle specially designed for that purpose, the vehicle should have the facility to secure a recumbent person in a stretcher, or it should be fitted with the necessary ramp or lift and clamps to enable a person or persons to be safely loaded, unloaded, and transported in a wheelchair."
H.M. Customs & Excise: Item 11 of Group 7, Schedule 9 to the VAT Act 1994 Exemptions