Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps her Department has taken to reduce wait times for medical driving licences.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has seen sustained growth in the volume and complexity of driving licence applications where a medical condition must be investigated before a licence can be issued. The length of time taken to deal with an application often depends on the condition(s) involved and whether further information is required from third parties, for example doctors or other healthcare professionals, before a licence can be issued.

To keep up with growing demand and to offer a better service, the DVLA has launched a new casework system and a new digital medical services portal. This new online service covers around 1,600 medical conditions and allows the majority of people to apply online via the DVLA’s driver and vehicles account. These enhancements are already helping the DVLA to process applications more quickly and further enhancements for people applying for a provisional licence and those renewing at the age of 70 or over will be made later this summer.

The DVLA encourages people to use the online service wherever possible to help speed up processing times.