Any driving instructors here?

[Xray83]

Can I ask. Is it actually illegal to be on your phone whilst instructing? Do you occasionally text whilst someone is driving?

Not a driving instructor but a mum supervising a teen so I looked it up - gov.uk says it's illegal to hold and use a mobile phone for any reason. I imagine instructors are subject to the same law.

Not a driving instructor but yes it is. There was publicity about it recently. Whilst you are supervising a learner driver you need to be in complete control and adhere to the same rules as if you were actually driving eg, no over the limit, not allowed to use a hand held device (phone/text etc).

This came in in March 2022. https://www.gov.uk/using-mobile-phones-when-driving-the-law

Thanks everyone. My dc driving instructor messages people as they're driving along sometimes, dc is very early on driving, had about 4 lessons and not on the 'main' roads yet. They just slipped it into conversation with me and I thought to myself that can't be right, they should have full attention on the road!!
The instructor has 5 * reviews and becomes very recommended so quite surprised.

My daughters first driving instructor did this a lot. We changed in the end as she felt uncomfortable that he wasn't really instructing her.