PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Driving Licences: Medical Examinations (4 October 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many Drivers Medical referrals to the DVLA took more than 60 days to (a) resolve and (b) close in (i) 2023, (ii) 2022, (iii) 2021, (iv) 2020 and (v) 2019.

Asked by:
Ms Julie Minns (Labour)

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.

Answered by:
Lilian Greenwood (Labour)
11 October 2024