Press release no:5 - DVLA reviews medical licensing policy for drivers

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is undertaking an independent review of the way medical conditions are assessed, their effect on an individual’s fitness to drive and associated road safety implications. The review is being conducted by independent researchers, Risk Solutions, and will involve consultation with a wide range of interested parties, including medical, driving and other groups. The review will also compare UK licensing arrangements with how licences are issued in other European countries.

The current arrangements have been in place since 1974 and mainly rely on self-declaration. Drivers are required by law to inform DVLA about the onset or worsening of any medical condition that may affect their safe driving. All drivers must renew their car driving licence at the age of 70, and every 3 years after.

DVLA Chief Executive Clive Bennett said:

“There are 20 million more drivers on the roads today than when the current arrangements were set up 30 years ago. The ageing population, together with medical advances means that drivers’ expectations regarding the continuation of driving have increased over the period. We have therefore commissioned this independent review to examine the current system and identify if there are any areas that may require changes.”

The review is currently underway, and workshops with key interest groups are planned over the next few months. The research should be completed by November 2005. Consideration of the recommendations will then take place.

For more information on the requirement to notify medical conditions, please log on to www.dvla.gov.uk/drivers

For further information please contact DVLA Press Office on 01792 782318

Notes to editors:

1. DVLA was established as an Executive Agency in April 1990, becoming a Trading Fund on 1 April 2004. DVLA is one of four Driver Vehicle and Operator (DVO) agencies sponsored by the Department for Transport (DfT) through the DVO Group.

2. DVLA Responsibilities are

• Maintaining records of licensed drivers and vehicle keepers
• Issuing and (where appropriate) withdrawal of licences to drivers
• Issuing registration certificates and annual vehicle licences to keepers
• Collecting and enforcing vehicle excise duty (VED)
• Issuing vehicle registration marks
• Selling attractive vehicle registration marks
• Selling anonymised data

DVLA also uses its databases (in conjunction with its partners) in ongoing crime reduction

3. DVLA strategic policy outcomes

• Reduced personal and economic loss from road accidents (arising from the DfT road safety and congestion objectives)
• Reduced vehicle related crime and support for the reduction of other crime (arising from the Home Office crime and security objectives)
• Reduced harm to the environment by vehicle (arising from the DfT air quality objective and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) environmental objectives)
• Improved public experience of government services (arising from the Government’s wider modernisation and efficiency agendas)

4. DVLA main operational sites are in Swansea, at Morriston and Swansea Vale. These are complemented by a network of three customer service managers’ offices, 40 local offices and three continuous registration enforcement centres throughout Great Britain.

5. We discharge our responsibility for vehicle licensing and registration and the collection and enforcement of VED in Northern Ireland through Driver and Vehicle Licensing Northern Ireland, an agency sponsored by the Department for Environment in Northern Ireland.

6. DVLA annual income is in excess of £550 million and its operating expenditure is over £424 million. In addition, DVLA collects some £4.8 billion in VED each year (£3.8 billion of which is collected by the Post Office®) and make some £200m of refunds to individual vehicle keepers. Currently we employ some 6,500 staff, the vast majority of whom are responsible for the delivery of and improvements to the core activities described above.

7. The key purpose of DVLA is to maintain a record of all those who are entitled to drive various types of vehicles, together with a register of all vehicles entitled to travel on public roads. These registers allow us to contribute to its strategic policy outcomes by keeping unentitled drivers and vehicles off the road with the co-operation of our delivery partners. The vehicles register also allows DVLA to collect VED on behalf of the Treasury, with the annual vehicle relicensing contract contributing significantly to the level of accuracy of our data.