Environment & Infrastructure president Adrian Gabriel said the committee would consider the matter, but pointed out that the island has a reciprocal arrangement with other countries which worked both for new residents and for islanders moving overseas.
E&I’s announcement came after Deputy Ross Le Brun asked it to look into whether the arrangements were robust enough.
‘This is an island-wide road safety issue,’ he wrote on social media after reading Monday’s Guernsey Press story about Alice Stirton, who was in intensive care for five days after being knocked off her bicycle.
The collision occurred at the Halfway filter and the motorist was given a suspended prison sentence and banned from driving for three years.
Mrs Stirton said that she thought that new residents should take a Guernsey driving test before being allowed to use local roads, and her comments led Deputy Le Brun to take action.
Deputy Gabriel said that the arrangement the island had with other countries helped to make it easier for people settling into new homes.
‘It’s also important that we avoid any suggestion that everyone who moves to Guernsey is incapable of driving safely on our roads,’ he said.
‘Without pre-empting any discussions, it’s worth pointing out that our current approach is similar to the UK, and this is one of a number of factors that would need to be considered if we chose to pursue a different approach.’
Under the existing rules, new residents who hold a full driving licence from certain approved countries can exchange it for a Guernsey one without having to take either a written or practical driving test.
Deputy Le Brun said that the approved list was of countries where the licensing and testing standards were considered sufficiently comparable to give confidence that drivers had met an appropriate standard.
If someone moved to the island who has a licence from a country that is not on the list, they must apply for a provisional licence and eventually take the full local test.
But they are allowed to drive using that foreign licence for up to a year before they have to do this.
‘That means someone can drive on our roads for a year before demonstrating that they meet Guernsey’s driving standards, even where their licence comes from a jurisdiction whose testing arrangements have not been recognised for exchange,’ Deputy Le Brun wrote.
But that was not the only issue he had discovered.
‘Someone can take and fail a Guernsey practical driving test and still legally continue driving on their foreign licence for the remainder of that 12-month period. I think it’s reasonable to ask whether that provides enough reassurance for other road users.’
He said he would also like to see figures of how many people were driving locally under these arrangements, how many subsequently failed a local test, and whether any assessment had been made of the risks.
He said that he was aware of ‘recent investigations’ into cases where foreign licences from countries not on the approved list had been obtained by people without the holder ever taking a practical test.
He told the Guernsey Press that people should not be judged by their nationality, and not every foreign licence was questionable.
‘This is about whether our licensing arrangements provide sufficient reassurance that everyone driving here has demonstrated an appropriate level of competence. We should be applying sensible and consistent road safety standards to everyone who drives here.
‘My view is that if a licence isn’t locally recognised for exchange, someone should demonstrate their driving competence through a local test before being allowed to drive independently.’