This petition was submitted during the 2019 to 2024 Parliament
Rejected petition Allow Ukraine refugees to change drive licences with like for like permissions.
Rejected on
Simply exchange Ukrainian refugees drivers licence's with like for like ie they have a manual licence upon entering and currently when they exchange their licences, they lose their ability to drive manual vehicles and also lose the ability to drive HGV vehicles.
As at 20 Jan 2023, we have taken in 192k Ukrainian refugees, a large number with skills falling on our shartage list, like courier + HGV drivers. The Gov. is spending millions per day, housing these folk in hotels and a number of them want to work and earn an honest days wage. Because of current law, when they exchange their driving licence to a UK one certain permissions are removed ie From having the ability to drive a manual vehicle + HGV, to be downgraded to only drive an automatic car.
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s not clear what the petition is asking the UK Government or Parliament to do.
It is not the case that Ukranians are banned from driving manual cars when they come to the UK and there are rules that apply to all HGV drivers: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/driver-documents-required-for-international-road-haulage.
We could accept a petition calling for changes to the above rules, for example exempting Ukrainian nationals from them.
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.