As long as you’ve ehad your
As long as you’ve ehad your licence a few years, you can drive a private minibus on an ordinary car licence (up to 17 seats I think) If you have only recently passed, then you won’t be able to drive any kind of van or minibus until you take a futher test.
Assuming you can drive one, take out most of the seats and insure it as a van. I believe the cutoff point between an official minibus and an MPV is 8 seats, because some Land Rovers have this many. Minibus insurance is crucifying, as there are only two companies (Minibus Plus and MCE I believe) who will insure them. once you have done your conversion, there is no need to retain the official Ford dseats, but all seats which face forward MUST have seatbelts even if they convert to beds. Side facing seats are not required to have belts, but it would be a good idea. imagine your kids flying around the interior if you rolled the van on a motorway….