Newslink December

For all the latest news, see www.msagb.com
New procedures, information on Standards
Check grading and a new committee at AGM
MSA Scotland held its annual training
seminar on 8th November by Zoom –
you know why! All the Scottish
Committee were present with the
exception of our secretary, Brian
Thomson, who unfortunately had been
struck down fairly severely with
Covid-19.
I am pleased to say that after being
admitted to hospital, he is now heading
in the right direction, albeit with a
massive mountain to climb. I’m sure all
members will join the committee in
wishing him every success in climbing
that mountain – and we’re really looking
forward to welcoming Brian back to
committee meetings.
Back to the training seminar: We had
around 35 members in attendance for
the virtual meeting, in addition to Mike
Warner, the DVSA’s senior external affairs
manager, and John Sheridan, DVSA
driver training policy manager. Both
delivered excellent presentations. Mike
discussed the new additions to the
Standard Operating Procedures for a
third party in the back of training
vehicles to be using British Sign
Language, and to review the current
ventilation system in learner cars for
examiners. All this information is
available on the NASP
website.
John discussed the current
state of play on the register.
There were 38,690 ADIs on
the DVSA register as of June,
and around a third of these
– 10,300 – had been classified
as Grade A instructors. 24,000 were
classed as Grade B on their Standards
Check, while 1,300 had failed.
Surprisingly, there are still some
Instructors who hold the previous grades
of 4/5 and 6.
We also discussed the ADI Part 2 test
(driving assessment) which only has a
60.6 per cent pass rate as of June 2020
- though that wa slightly higher than
2018/19, when it was 58 per cent.
The ADI Part 3 pass rate was 35.1 per
cent as of June 2020, slightly down from
2018/19’s 37 per cent.
We also discussed the opening up of
waiting rooms, as well as ‘blue light
driver training and also tougher laws for
mobile phone use.
Watch out for more information on
Newslink regarding these subjects.
I would like to take this opportunity to
thank Messers Warner and Sheridan for
attending our meeting; it was
greatly appreciated.
As the Zoom seminar also
included the AGM for MSA
GB Scotland, we had some
statutory steps to take. The
current committee all formally
stood down, before being
re-elected into their office again
for the next 12 months.
The Regional Chairman is, therefore,
the same, as for 2019-20:
Chairman: Alex Buist (pictured)
Deputy Chairman: Steven Porter
Vice Chairman: Bob Baker
Secretary: Brian Thomson
Treasurer: Liam Baird
Editor: Karen MacLeod.
Committee members are Peter Harvey
MBE, Judy Hale, Bryan Phillips, Mark
Hewison, Richard Barclay and Ian
Marshall.
Finally, as this is the December issue
of Newslink, may I wish the MSA
Scotland committee and everyone
reading this issue a very Merry Christmas
and a better New Year in 2021.
Take care everyone and I look forward
to welcoming in the New Year with you
in the January issue of Newslink.
Taxman makes expenses easier - but not for ADIs
There’s some good news for those ADIs
dreading filling in their self assessment
form in January – a more simplified way
of calculating vehicle expenses has been
introduced by HMRC.
However, sadly, the scheme explicitly
says it is not for ADIs with dual
controlled cars.
However, if you run cars for other
business purposes, such as driver
assessment courses or driver awareness
training, you can now calculate your
vehicle expenses using a flat rate for
mileage instead of the actual costs of
buying and running your vehicle.
You can use simplified expenses for:
• cars (except cars designed for
commercial use, for example black cabs
or dual control driving instructors’ cars)
• goods vehicles
• motorcycles
The flat rate per mile with simplified
expenses for cars and goods vehicles for
the first 10,000 miles is 45p a mile;
above that mileage it is 25p. For
motorcycles it is 24p per mile.
As an example, if you drive 11,000
business miles over the year you can
claim £4,500 for the first 10,000 miles
and £250 for next 1,000, giving a total
allowance of £4,750.
You do not have to use flat rates for all
your vehicles. Once you use the flat rates
for a vehicle, you must continue to do so
as long as you use that vehicle for your
business.
You can claim all other travel expenses
(for example, train journeys) and parking
on top of your vehicle expenses.
Use the simplified expenses checker to
compare what you can claim using
simplified expenses with what you can
claim by working out the actual costs.
More details, plus links to the
Simplified expenses checker, can be
found at
Simplified
expenses
www.msagb.com
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