A Section 19 permit lets a UK not-for-profit organisation carry its own members, or people it exists to help, for hire or reward without holding a PSV operator’s licence. It cannot be used to carry the general public. Standard permits cover vehicles adapted for up to 16 passengers, large bus permits cover 17 or more, and applications go to the Traffic Commissioner or a designated body such as the Community Transport Association, typically for a small fee.
TL;DR:
A Section 19 permit allows not-for-profit organisations to carry members or beneficiaries for hire or reward without a full PSV licence, but cannot be used for public transport.
Applications require proof of not-for-profit status, accurate vehicle and driver details, and are typically processed within 14 days, with fees around £11 per permit.
Large bus permits (17+ seats) must go through the Traffic Commissioner, while standard permits (up to 16 seats) can be issued by designated bodies like the CTA or local authorities.
The permit restrictions prohibit carrying the general public, commercial profit, and transfer of permits between entities, with compliance audits essential to avoid revocation.
For irregular trips or minimal operational overhead, contracting a licensed operator such as Cozy Travel may be more practical than managing a permit yourself.
Table of Contents
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What does a section 19 permit cost, and how long does it last?
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Traffic Commissioner, CTA or local authority: who should issue your permit?
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Practical record-keeping that experienced operators swear by
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Why hiring Cozy Travel can be simpler than running your own permit
What section 19 of the Transport Act 1985 actually says
The legal foundation for every Section 19 permit sits in the Transport Act 1985, which sets out who may run passenger transport without the full PSV operator’s licence normally required for hire and reward journeys. The Act carves out an exception for bodies that exist to serve education, religion, social welfare, recreation, or other activities benefiting the community, provided the transport is run “without a view to profit.”
That phrase does a lot of legal work, and it trips up more applications than any other part of the rules. It does not mean your organisation must run at a loss. It means the transport activity itself must not generate profit, and any surplus fares collected must go back into running the service rather than into general funds or salaries. A youth club that charges members £3 towards diesel and driver expenses passes this test easily. A group that charges £15 a head and pockets the difference does not, regardless of how charitable its wider mission looks on paper.
Gov confirms that organisations operating without a view to profit can apply for permits allowing passenger transport for hire or reward, sidestepping the need for a full PSV licence. Alongside the primary legislation, the Section 19 Permit Regulations 2009 introduced the expiry and disc rules that still govern permits issued today.
Where the wording gets contested, three sources settle most disputes:
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The Transport Act 1985 itself, for the underlying statutory test.
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Traffic Commissioner guidance, for how the test is applied in practice.
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Case-by-case advice from your issuing body, since designated bodies interpret borderline cases regularly and can flag problems before you submit.
Who can apply and which organisations usually qualify
Eligibility hinges on purpose, not size. Schools, charities, religious groups, social welfare organisations, and recreational clubs all sit comfortably within the categories the Transport Act 1985 recognises, as long as the transport serves the group’s own members or the people it exists to help.
In practice, the organisations that sail through applications share a few traits:
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A written constitution or governing document that states the organisation’s purpose in plain terms.
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An annual report or accounts showing income is reinvested, not distributed as profit.
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Clear membership rules defining who counts as a “member” for permit purposes.
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A committee or trustee structure that can confirm decisions about transport use.
Umbrella arrangements add a useful shortcut for smaller branches. National bodies such as Scouts groups or Girlguiding units often sit under a parent organisation that already holds designated status, meaning individual troops can apply through that umbrella rather than building a case from scratch. This is faster, but it comes with a dependency: if the umbrella body’s own standing lapses, every branch permit issued under it is affected too.
Pro Tip: Keep a digital copy of your constitution and latest annual accounts ready before you start the application. Reviewers ask for these first, and having them prepared shaves days off the process.
Standard and large bus permits: which one do you need?
Section 19 permits split into two categories based on vehicle capacity, and picking the wrong one is one of the most common reasons applications get sent back for correction.
A standard permit covers vehicles adapted to carry no more than 16 passengers. A large bus permit covers vehicles adapted to carry 17 or more, a distinction confirmed directly by GOV.UK’s guidance. The threshold is about the vehicle’s adapted seating capacity, not how many people you actually plan to carry on a given trip.
A few practical points follow from that split:
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Minibuses with 8 or fewer passenger seats fall under separate rules and, in many cases, require separate fares rather than a group booking arrangement.
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Large bus permits can only be issued by the Traffic Commissioner or Central Licensing Office; designated bodies such as the CTA cannot issue them.
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The permit authorises specific classes of passenger: your own members, and people the organisation exists to help. It does not authorise open bookings from anyone who turns up.
If your group runs a fleet spanning both categories, for instance a 16-seat minibus for weekly outings and a 30-seat coach for the annual trip, you will need permits matched to each vehicle’s capacity rather than one blanket permit covering everything.
How to apply for a section 19 permit step by step
The application itself is more paperwork exercise than legal minefield, provided you have the right documents ready before you start. Here is the section 19 permit process in the order most applicants follow it.
Documentation checklist:
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Evidence of not-for-profit status (constitution, governing document, or trust deed).
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Vehicle details, including registration, seating capacity, and MOT status.
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Driver names and licence details, confirming appropriate entitlement.
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A completed form PSV372, the standard application form referenced by councils such as Doncaster Council’s Section 19 permit guidance.
The steps:
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Confirm eligibility first. Check your organisation’s purpose against the “without a view to profit” test before spending time on the form. If you are borderline, contact your intended issuing body for an informal view.
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Choose your issuing route. Large bus permits (17+ seats) must go through the Traffic Commissioner or Central Licensing Office. Standard permits (up to 16 seats) can go through the same route, or through a designated body such as the Community Transport Association if your organisation holds membership, or in some areas through the local authority.
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Complete form PSV372 in full, listing every vehicle you want covered and attaching your supporting documents.
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Submit the application to the correct destination for your route. For Traffic Commissioner applications, the Central Licensing Office can be reached at permits@otc.gov.uk, and general vehicle and licensing queries can go through DVSA’s contact channels.
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Wait for a decision. Councils processing these applications, including Doncaster, report outcomes are commonly determined within about 14 days of a complete submission.
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Display your disc. Once approved, the permit disc must be displayed in the vehicle exactly as instructed. Permits and discs granted on or after 6 April 2009 carry an expiry date, valid for a maximum of five years, so log that date the moment the disc arrives.
Incomplete documentation is the single biggest cause of delay. If your evidence of not-for-profit status is ambiguous, such as a constitution that does not mention transport activities at all, expect a query before approval rather than an outright refusal.
Do your drivers and vehicles meet the rules?
A permit covers the organisation’s right to run the service. It does not automatically cover the driver or the vehicle, and this is where well-meaning groups often fall short without realising it.
Drivers generally need PCV (Passenger Carrying Vehicle) entitlement to drive larger permit vehicles, though Section 19 carries specific exemptions depending on when the driver passed their test. Drivers who held a full category B licence before 1 January 1997 typically retain grandfathered rights to drive minibuses (category D1) under permit conditions without needing a separate PCV category, subject to age and medical requirements. Drivers who passed after that date generally need the specific category, D1 for minibuses or PCV entitlement for larger vehicles.
Driver CPC (Certificate of Professional Competence) rules can also apply depending on the nature of the driving and whether it counts as professional activity under the regulations, so it is worth checking your specific circumstances rather than assuming an exemption applies. A Driver CPC refresher course is a sensible investment even where an exemption technically applies, since insurers increasingly expect it as standard practice.
For large buses (17+ seats), the vehicle itself typically needs a Certificate of Initial Fitness (COIF) or Certificate of Conformity (CoC), confirming it meets construction and use standards for passenger carrying.
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Maintenance records should be current and available for inspection, not just filed away for MOT time.
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The permit disc must be displayed prominently, matching the vehicle it was issued for.
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Vehicle checks should happen on a rolling schedule, not only when something looks wrong.
Pro Tip: Match your driver entitlement checks to your term calendar. A quick licence and CPC review every September catches lapsed entitlements before the first school run, not after.
What a section 19 permit does not let you do
The permit’s restrictions matter as much as its permissions, and misunderstanding them is the fastest route to a revoked permit.
The permit cannot be used to carry the general public. This sounds obvious until you look at the borderline cases: a village hall trip advertised on a public noticeboard, open to anyone who books, crosses the line even if most attendees happen to be existing members. A church minibus run exclusively for congregation members and their invited guests, with no public advertising, stays firmly inside the rules.
The activity must not be run with a view to profit, and this extends beyond the obvious. Charging fares that exceed the actual cost of running the trip, even to build a small reserve fund for future outings, can be read as incidental profit-making depending on how the surplus is used and disclosed.
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Permits are not transferable between organisations, vehicles, or ownership structures. A permit issued to your charity cannot simply pass to a partner organisation running a similar activity.
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If your organisation’s structure, name, or trustees change significantly, notify your issuing body promptly rather than assuming the existing permit still applies unchanged.
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Permits attached to a designated body membership lapse if that membership lapses, even if nothing else about your organisation has changed.
What does a section 19 permit cost, and how long does it last?
Budgeting for permits is straightforward once you know the figures, and they are modest compared with the cost of a full PSV operator’s licence.
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Fee: councils including Doncaster reference a typical fee in the region of £11 per permit, payable at the point of application; check with your specific issuing body since designated bodies may set their own membership-linked charges.
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Expiry: permits and discs issued on or after 6 April 2009 are valid for a maximum of five years, after which renewal is required. Permits issued before that date may carry no expiry date at all, though replacing an old permit with a current one is generally good practice.
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Multiple vehicles: each vehicle needs its own permit and disc matched to its capacity category. Running a fleet of five minibuses means five separate permits, not one covering the lot.
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Processing: decisions are commonly reached within about 14 days of a complete application, though designated-body routes can vary depending on membership processing times.
How does a section 19 permit affect grant funding?
Holding a valid permit is not just a legal formality. It can directly determine whether your organisation is eligible for certain transport funding streams.
Guidance for the Bus Service Operators Grant confirms that holding a Section 19 permit can be a precondition for claiming BSOG as a community transport operator, with evidence such as a copy of the permit forming part of the claim.
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BSOG claims typically require a copy of the permit, evidence of fuel use, and confirmation the service meets the scheme’s not-for-profit criteria within the specified claiming window.
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Local community transport grants, often administered through county or borough councils, generally expect similar evidence: proof of permit status, a constitution, and a short account of who the service benefits.
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Record-keeping matters more than most groups expect. Keep permit copies, fuel receipts, and passenger numbers filed together, since funders rarely accept retrospective reconstruction of records at claim time.
Grant deadlines vary by local authority and by scheme year, so check the specific claiming window with your funder rather than assuming it matches the permit’s own renewal cycle.
Traffic Commissioner, CTA or local authority: who should issue your permit?
Three routes exist for obtaining a permit, and each suits a different kind of organisation.
The Traffic Commissioner and Central Licensing Office handle all large bus permit applications and can also issue standard permits. This is the route with the broadest scope, and the only one available if you are running a 17+ seat vehicle.
Designated bodies, most notably the Community Transport Association, can issue standard permits to member organisations but cannot issue large bus permits. Membership through the CTA can streamline the process for smaller groups already engaged with the community transport sector, but it introduces an ongoing dependency: if membership lapses, the standard permit issued through it is affected too.
Local authorities issue permits in some areas, typically for organisations already working closely with council-run community transport schemes. Contact your local council’s transport team to check whether this route applies in your area.
Pro Tip: If you are weighing designated-body membership against a direct Traffic Commissioner application, factor in the annual membership renewal date, not just the permit expiry date. Two separate deadlines to track is a common source of accidental lapses.
Compliance checklist: avoiding refusal or revocation
Most permit problems are avoidable with a short internal audit before each renewal cycle. Run through this list annually, not just when a renewal notice arrives.
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Confirm your constitution and annual report still reflect current activities, especially if your organisation has expanded its transport use since the last application.
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Check every journey matches an authorised passenger class. Members and beneficiaries only, never open public bookings.
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Verify discs are displayed correctly in each vehicle and match the permit issued for that specific registration.
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Review vehicle fitness documentation, including MOT status and, for large buses, COIF or CoC certification.
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Audit driver licences and CPC status against current entitlement requirements, not assumptions carried over from previous years.
The most common mistakes are rarely deliberate. Groups inadvertently carry public passengers by advertising a trip too widely, or a designated-body membership lapses quietly because renewal fell to one volunteer who then left the committee. Fare arrangements that seem reasonable internally sometimes look like incidental profit to an outside reviewer, especially where surplus fares are not clearly earmarked for future transport costs.
If your issuing body queries compliance, respond promptly with documentation rather than assurances. If a permit is revoked, most organisations can reapply once the underlying issue, whether it is membership, documentation, or passenger class, has been resolved and evidenced.
Practical record-keeping that experienced operators swear by
Groups that run permits smoothly year after year tend to share one habit: a single, boring, well-maintained register rather than scattered paperwork across several volunteers’ inboxes.
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A central permit register listing every disc, its expiry date, and a scanned copy, checked termly rather than only when a renewal letter turns up.
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Renewal reminders set roughly three months ahead of expiry, giving enough time to gather updated documentation without a last-minute scramble.
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A rolling maintenance log per vehicle, updated after every service or check, not just at MOT time.
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A driver entitlement checklist reviewed each term, confirming licence categories and CPC status are current before the busiest part of the school or activity calendar.
Groups running their own Transport Manager refresher training alongside this record-keeping tend to catch compliance gaps before they become permit problems, since a transport manager reviewing the register regularly spots a lapsed entitlement long before an inspector would.
If you are weighing whether self-operation is worth the administrative load, a short list of questions helps: does the contractor hold appropriate PSV licensing, what safety accreditation do they carry, and can they provide accessible vehicles if your group needs them? Asking these before booking saves problems later.
When to run your own service and when to hire an operator
The honest answer depends on how often you travel and how much administrative capacity your committee actually has, not how much you would like to have.
A permit makes sense for organisations running regular, predictable journeys, weekly minibus runs for a lunch club, or a school’s own fleet doing daily pickups, where the fixed administrative cost of maintaining the permit is spread across dozens of trips a year. The trade-off is real: someone has to own the register, track expiry dates, and answer for compliance if questioned.
Hiring a contractor suits one-off events, irregular group trips, or journeys with specialist accessibility requirements that your own vehicles cannot meet. It removes the compliance burden entirely, shifting it onto an operator who already carries the relevant licensing and safety accreditation. For a single annual outing or an occasional wheelchair-accessible trip, the administrative overhead of holding a permit rarely justifies itself against simply booking a professional service.
Whichever route your organisation takes, the decision should follow from your actual travel pattern, not from whichever option feels administratively simpler this week.
— Cozys
Why hiring Cozy Travel can be simpler than running your own permit
For groups that would rather spend their time on their mission than on permit renewals and disc registers, Coach Hire removes the administrative layer entirely. You are booking a fully licensed operator with extensive experience and environmentally friendly vehicles, rather than managing compliance yourself.
This suits several situations covered above particularly well, especially when considering the impact of DC fast charger costs for UK schemes on electric vehicle fleets. One-off outings, where a permit’s fixed costs never pay for themselves, fit naturally into Group Travel bookings. Organisations needing wheelchair-accessible vehicles without adapting their own fleet can turn to Accessible Specialists instead of sourcing and maintaining specialist vehicles under a permit. Schools weighing whether to run their own minibus permit against contracting reliable transport can review Schools & Colleges services built specifically around term-time reliability and safeguarding requirements.
If your committee has decided the compliance overhead outweighs the control a permit offers, get in touch with Cozy to discuss your group’s travel pattern and receive a tailored quote.
Where to check the rules and your permit status
For the legal text itself, go to the Transport Act 1985 on legislation.gov.uk. For application guidance and eligibility rules, GOV.UK’s Section 19 and 22 permits page is the authoritative reference. Form PSV372 and local processing details are available through your Traffic Commissioner or local council. To check an existing permit’s status, the Traffic Commissioners’ published register lists Section 19, Section 19 Large, and Section 22 permits issued in the last five years.
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FAQ
How much does a Section 19 permit cost?
Councils including Doncaster reference a typical fee of around £11 per permit, payable when you submit your application. Designated bodies such as the CTA may apply their own membership-linked charges alongside the permit fee.
Can I drive a minibus without a Section 19 permit?
No, if the journey involves hire or reward transport for a not-for-profit group without a full PSV operator’s licence, you need a valid permit covering that specific vehicle. Operating without one risks enforcement action and invalidates any insurance relying on lawful permit status.
What is section 19 of the Transport Act 1985?
It is the statutory provision that lets not-for-profit organisations carry their own members or people they exist to help for hire or reward, without holding a full PSV operator’s licence, as set out in the Transport Act 1985. The permit does not, and never has, covered general public transport.
How do I apply for a section 19 permit?
You complete form PSV372 with evidence of not-for-profit status, vehicle details, and driver information, then submit it to the Traffic Commissioner or Central Licensing Office, or through a designated body such as the CTA for standard permits. Decisions are commonly reached within about 14 days of a complete submission.
Should my organisation apply for a permit or hire a coach operator?
That depends on how often you travel. Regular, predictable journeys often justify holding a permit, while one-off events or specialist accessibility needs are usually simpler and safer to arrange through a licensed operator such as Cozy’s Coach Hire, which removes the compliance burden entirely.