Driving Licences: Medical Examinations

(asked on 4th October 2024) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many Drivers Medical referrals to the DVLA took more than six months to (a) resolve and (b) close in (i) 2023, (ii) 2022, (iii) 2021, (iv) 2020 and (v) 2019.


Answered by
Lilian Greenwood Portrait
Lilian Greenwood
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 11th October 2024

The following table shows the number of drivers medical cases the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has resolved in each of the last five calendar years.

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

All drivers medical decisions made

766,283

556,382

550,773

863,431

723,126

30 working days or more to make a licensing decision

275,615

278,672

368,029

584,226

380,132

Proportion of licensing decisions made over 30 working days

35.97%

50.09%

66.82%

67.66%

52.57%

60 working days or more to make a licensing decision

129,321

167,311

263,084

453,639

213,639

90 working days or more to make a licensing decision

72,897

101,363

191,618

340,712

136,735

Six months or more to make a licensing decision (182 working days)

17,651

19,328

82,895

154,507

55,854

One year or more to make a licensing decision (365 working days)

346

613

4,547

14,105

11,759

To note, cases are classed as “resolved” when a licensing decision is made and the appropriate action is taken. Some cases may have been resolved but remain open for administrative reasons, for example, payments to third parties still needing to be fulfilled before the case can be closed.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) aims to make a licensing decision within 90 working days, in 90% of cases where a medical condition(s) must be investigated before a licence can be issued.

Medical applications can take longer because the DVLA is very often reliant on receiving information from third parties, for example doctors or other healthcare professionals, before a decision can be made on whether to issue a licence.

Drivers with diabetes, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, visual impairments, sleep conditions, or heart conditions can renew their driving licence online. The DVLA has also introduced a simplified licence renewal process for drivers with epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, some mental health conditions, and glaucoma. This has significantly reduced the need for the DVLA to seek further information from medical professionals and enabled more licensing decisions to be made based on the information provided by the driver.

In July 2022, the law changed to widen the pool of registered healthcare professionals who can provide information as part of the DVLA’s medical investigations into a person’s fitness to drive. Previously, this information could only be provided by a doctor. GP surgeries and hospital teams now have greater flexibility to decide how they manage the DVLA’s requests for information.

Most applicants renewing an existing licence will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing the driver can meet specific criteria. More information can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inf1886-can-i-drive-while-my-application-is-with-dvla.

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