According to the government notice issued by the Office of the Traffic Commissioner, Deputy Traffic Commissioner Gerallt Evans took action against St Martins Preparatory School Limited at a public inquiry in Leeds on 10 September 2026. The company operates school minibuses from its site in Grimsby. The school’s restricted PSV operator’s licence has been reduced from two vehicles to one. It has also been suspended for 14 days, from 25 September to 9 October 2026, and the company must now commission an independent audit of its transport safety and compliance systems and identify a clearly responsible person for the licence.
The government notice makes clear that the case did not arise from a single event. Concerns first identified by enforcement authorities in 2024 were later repeated in an independent audit and then examined again by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. By the time of the inquiry, the commissioner was considering a wider pattern of compliance weakness. Findings included failures to maintain vehicles in line with declared inspection schedules, failures linked to vehicle maintenance records and drivers’ hours undertakings, and broader licensing and regulatory shortcomings.
A central feature of the ruling was governance. The commissioner concluded that the directors had, in practice, passed responsibility for compliance to the school head and other local staff who were not suitably qualified or properly equipped to manage operator licensing duties. That is a serious point in Traffic Commissioner cases because operator licensing depends on active management control, not informal delegation. Where directors hold the licence, they are expected to know how maintenance, records and legal duties are being managed and to intervene when standards slip.
The published decision notice also refers to a March 2025 MoT failure involving a vehicle with a tyre cut to the cord. In any passenger transport case that would attract attention, but the fact that the vehicle was being used to carry schoolchildren plainly sharpened the road safety concern. The commissioner accepted that some corrective steps had been taken, including training and the temporary withdrawal of vehicles from service. Even so, the ruling states that the negative features significantly outweighed the positives, with concern that the operator had not dealt with the underlying causes quickly enough or effectively enough.
For schools and other organisations running minibuses, the ruling is a practical reminder that a restricted PSV licence carries continuing duties. The Traffic Commissioners’ published position is that operators must have reliable maintenance systems, complete and accessible records, effective monitoring of drivers’ hours where required, and clear accountability for compliance. The requirement for an independent audit and a named responsible person is therefore more than a procedural step. It is intended to test whether the operator now has a transport compliance structure that can withstand scrutiny, rather than relying on ad hoc arrangements within wider school administration.
The wider public safety message is straightforward. Traffic Commissioner enforcement is not confined to commercial bus and coach operators; schools using minibuses are also expected to meet full roadworthiness, maintenance and licensing standards on a day-to-day basis. For governors, parents and operators, the case is a plain-English statement of what regulators expect. According to the government notice, passenger safety, especially where children are concerned, depends on consistent maintenance control, proper documentation and visible management responsibility. The full ruling has been published on the Traffic Commissioner Regulatory Decisions page.