General information: assessing fitness to drive
General information for medical professionals about the assessing fitness to drive guide.
GB driver licensing
Licensing and licence groups
The GB medical standards for driver licensing refer to Group 1 and Group 2 licence holders:
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Group 1 includes cars and motorcycles
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Group 2 includes large lorries (category C) and buses (category D)
In most cases, the medical standards for Group 2 drivers are substantially higher than for Group 1 drivers. This is because of the size and weight of the vehicle and the length of time an occupational driver typically spends at the wheel.
Drivers who were awarded a Group 1 category B (motor car) licence before 1 January 1997 have additional entitlement to categories C1 (medium-sized lorries, 3.5t to 7.5t) and D1 (minibuses, 9 to 16 seats, not for hire or reward). Drivers with this entitlement retain it only until their licence expires or it is revoked for medical reasons. On subsequent renewal or reapplication, the higher medical standards applicable to Group 2 will apply.
Under certain circumstances, volunteer drivers may drive a minibus of up to 16 seats without category D1 entitlement. DVLA outlines the rules for such circumstances on the GOV.UK website (see Driving a minibus).
Age limits for licensing
Group 1
Licences are normally valid until 70 years of age (the ’til 70 licence) unless restricted to a shorter duration for medical reasons.
There is no upper age limit to licensing, but after 70 renewal is required every 3 years.
A person in receipt of the mobility component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) can hold a driving licence from 16 years of age. (A person can’t apply for PIP until their 16th birthday.)
Group 2
The minimum age for Group 2 entitlement to drive lorries (category C) is 21 and for buses (category D) is 24, unless the driver is undergoing or has passed the Driver Certificate of Competence (CPC) initial qualification which they can do at the age of 21. The Group 2 licensing entitlement is valid for a maximum of 5 years. Group 2 licences must be renewed every 5 years or at age 45, whichever is the earlier, until the age of 65 when they are renewed annually without an upper age limit. Shorter licences may be issued for medical reasons.
There are exceptions, such as driving in the armed forces, and people of a minimum age of 18 can drive lorries and buses after gaining, or training towards, the Driver CPC.
All initial Group 2 licence applications require a medical assessment by a registered medical practitioner (recorded on the D4 form). The same assessment is required again at 45 years of age and on any subsequent reapplication.
Police, fire, ambulance and health service driver licensing
The same medical standards apply for drivers of police, fire, coastguard, ambulance and health service vehicles as they do for all drivers holding Group 1 and 2 licences. Any responsibility for determining higher medical standards, over and above these licensing requirements, rests with the individual force, service or other relevant body.
Taxi licensing
Responsibility for determining any higher standards and medical requirements for taxi drivers, over and above the driver licensing requirements, rests with Transport for London in the Metropolitan area, or the local council in all other areas.
Decisions taken by employers on the use and application of the GB standards on fitness to drive in particular circumstances and as they relate to employees are for the employer to make. Any responsibility for determining higher medical standards, over and above these licensing requirements, rests with the individual force, service or other relevant body.
Interpretation of GB legislation
The advice of the Honorary Medical Advisory Panels on the interpretation of GB legislation and its appropriate application is made within the context of driver licensing.
Sudden disabling events
Anyone with a medical condition likely to cause a sudden disabling event at the wheel, or who is unable to control their vehicle safely for any other reason, must not drive.
DVLA defines the risk of a sudden disabling event as:
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20% likelihood of an event in 1 year for Group 1 licensing
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2% likelihood of an event in 1 year for Group 2 licensing
These figures, while originally defined by older studies, have since been revalidated by more recent risk-of-harm calculations.
DVLA notification by drivers or healthcare professionals
Applicants and licence holders have a legal duty to:
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notify DVLA of any injury or illness that would have a likely impact on safe driving ability (except some short-term conditions that are unlikely to continue beyond 3 months, as set out in this guide)
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respond fully and accurately to any requests for information from either DVLA or healthcare professionals
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comply with the requirements of the issued licence, including any periodic medical reviews indicated by DVLA
They should also adhere, with ongoing consideration of fitness to drive, to prescribed medical treatment, and to monitor and manage the condition and any adaptations.
Doctors and other healthcare professionals should:
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advise the individual on the impact of their medical condition for safe driving ability
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advise the individual on their legal requirement to notify DVLA of any relevant condition
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treat, manage and monitor the individual’s condition with ongoing consideration of their fitness to drive
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notify DVLA when fitness to drive requires notification but an individual cannot or will not notify DVLA themselves
Of course, this last obligation on professionals may pose a challenge to issues of authorisation and the relationship between patient and healthcare professional. The General Medical Council (GMC) and the General Optical Council (GOC) offer guidance on this which is summarised below.
In law it is the duty of the licence holder or applicant to notify DVLA of any medical condition that may affect safe driving. This notification by people with licences issued by DVLA (because they live in England, Scotland or Wales) may be done via GOV.UK – see Medical conditions, disabilities and driving.
For people with licences issued by the Driver and Vehicle Agency in Northern Ireland, the options for direct notification are given on the NI Direct page: How to tell DVA about a medical condition.
Circumstances may arise in which a person cannot or will not notify DVLA. It may be necessary for a doctor, optometrist or other healthcare professional to consider notifying DVLA under such circumstances if there is concern for road safety, which would be for both the individual and the wider public.
The General Medical Council (GMC) and the General Optical Council (GOC) offer clear guidance about notifying DVLA when the person cannot or will not exercise their own legal duty to do so.
The GMC guidelines 2017 (reproduced with permission) state:
1.In our guidance Confidentiality: good practice in handling patient information we say:
1.Trust is an essential part of the doctor-patient relationship and confidentiality is central to this. Patients may avoid seeking medical help, or may under-report symptoms, if they think that their personal information will be disclosed by doctors without consent, or without the chance to have some control over the timing or amount of information shared.
60.Doctors owe a duty of confidentiality to their patients, but they also have a wider duty to protect and promote the health of patients and the public.
62.You should ask for a patient’s consent to disclose information for the protection of others unless it is not safe or practicable to do so, or the information is required by law. You should consider any reasons given for refusal.
64.If it is not practicable to seek consent, and in exceptional cases where a patient has refused consent, disclosing personal information may be justified in the public interest if failure to do so may expose others to a risk of death or serious harm. The benefits to an individual or to society of the disclosure must outweigh both the patient’s and the public interest in keeping the information confidential.
68.If you consider that failure to disclose the information would leave individuals or society exposed to a risk so serious that it outweighs patients’ and the public interest in maintaining confidentiality, you should disclose relevant information promptly to an appropriate person or authority. You should inform the patient before disclosing the information, if it is practicable and safe to do so, even if you intend to disclose without their consent.
About this guidance
2.Doctors owe a duty of confidentiality to their patients, but they also have a wider duty to protect and promote the health of patients and the public. This explanatory guidance sets out the steps doctors should take if a patient’s failure or refusal to stop driving exposes others to a risk of death or serious harm.
Fitness to drive: doctors’ and patients’ responsibilities
3.The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in England, Scotland and Wales and the Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) in Northern Ireland are legally responsible for deciding if a person is medically unfit to drive. This means they need to know if a person holding a driving licence has a condition or is undergoing treatment that may now, or in the future, affect their safety as a driver.
4.The driver is legally responsible for telling the DVLA or DVA about any such condition or treatment. Doctors should therefore alert patients to conditions and treatments that might affect their ability to drive and remind them of their duty to tell the appropriate agency. Doctors may, however, need to make a decision about whether to disclose relevant information without consent to the DVLA or DVA in the public interest if a patient is unfit to drive but continues to do so.
Assessing a patient’s fitness to drive
5.When diagnosing a patient’s condition, or providing or arranging treatment, you should consider whether the condition or treatment may affect their ability to drive safely. You should:
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refer to the DVLA’s guidance Assessing fitness to drive – a guide for medical professionals, which includes information about disorders and conditions that can impair a patient’s fitness to drive
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seek the advice of an experienced colleague or the DVLA’s or DVA’s medical adviser if you are not sure whether a condition or treatment might affect a patient’s fitness to drive.
Reporting concerns to the DVLA or DVA
6.If a patient has a condition or is undergoing treatment that could impair their fitness to drive, you should:
a. explain this to the patient and tell them that they have a legal duty to inform the DVLA or DVA
b. tell the patient that you may be obliged to disclose relevant medical information about them, in confidence, to the DVLA or DVA if they continue to drive when they are not fit to do so
c. make a note of any advice you have given to a patient about their fitness to drive in their medical record.
7.If a patient is incapable of understanding this advice – for example, because of dementia – you should inform the DVLA or DVA as soon as practicable.
8.If a patient refuses to accept the diagnosis, or the effect of the condition or treatment on their ability to drive, you can suggest that they seek a second opinion, and help arrange for them to do so. You should advise the patient not to drive in the meantime. As long as the patient agrees, you may discuss your concerns with their relatives, friends or carers.
9.If you become aware that a patient is continuing to drive when they may not be fit to do so, you should make every reasonable effort to persuade them to stop. If you do not manage to persuade the patient to stop driving, or you discover that they are continuing to drive against your advice, you should consider whether the patient’s refusal to stop driving leaves others exposed to a risk of death or serious harm. If you believe that it does, you should contact the DVLA or DVA promptly and disclose any relevant medical information, in confidence, to the medical adviser.
10.Before contacting the DVLA or DVA, you should try to inform the patient of your intention to disclose personal information. If the patient objects to the disclosure, you should consider any reasons they give for objecting. If you decide to contact the DVLA or DVA, you should tell your patient in writing once you have done so, and make a note on the patient’s record.
Responding to requests for information from the DVLA or the DVA
11.If you agree to prepare a report or complete or sign a document to assist the DVLA’s or the DVA’s assessment of a patient’s fitness to drive, you should do so without unreasonable delay.
See the full guidance on the GMC website: Confidentiality: patients’ fitness to drive and reporting concerns to the DVLA or DVA.
The GOC offers similar guidance, available in full at its website under the confidentiality section of its General Optical Council Standards (use the subsection on ‘disclosing confidential information about patients with or without consent’).
This guidance includes the following (reproduced with permission of GOC):
Disclosing information with consent
Where you are not sharing information with other healthcare professionals for the purpose of providing (or supporting the provision of) direct care to a patient, you should always try to get your patient’s explicit consent to disclose sensitive information about them, unless any of the following apply:
a. obtaining consent would defeat the purpose of the disclosure (for example, where there would be a risk of harm to others; where detection of a serious crime would be obstructed); or
b. you have already made the decision to disclose information in the public interest and obtaining consent would be meaningless or tokenistic; or
c. the patient is not able to give consent as a result of disability, illness or injury. A patient’s ability to give consent is referred to as their ‘capacity’ to consent. For more information on capacity, including what to do if a patient lacks capacity, see our consent guidance.
Where your patient provides you with explicit consent to disclose confidential information about them, you must ensure that they know what they are consenting to (see Standards 2 and 3 of the Standards of Practice, and our consent guidance) and that they are clear what information is going to be disclosed, why it is being disclosed and to which person or authority. Where you are relying on implied consent (see paragraph 10 above), patients should not be surprised to learn how their information is used; if the information would be used in ways that patients would not reasonably expect, you should seek explicit consent for this from the patient.
It is important to remember that patients with the capacity to consent have the right to make their own decisions and to refuse consent, even where you or others may consider the decision to be ill-advised. If a patient makes a decision contrary to clinical advice, you should document this in the patient records so that it is clear to all involved in that patient’s care.
Disclosing information without consent
If a patient does not provide you with explicit consent to disclose confidential information about them, and if you cannot rely on implied consent, there may still be circumstances in which you may pass the information on to an appropriate authority, such as where it is in the public interest, or where there is a legal requirement for you to do so.
Notification can be provided by healthcare professionals in the above circumstances, in confidence:
By email: [email protected]
By post:
Medical Business Support
D7 West
DVLA
Swansea
SA6 7JL
How DVLA responds to notification and applies the medical standards
Once DVLA is notified of a medical condition and obtains authorisation, it will make medical enquiries as required.
The Secretary of State (in practice, DVLA) is unable to make a licensing decision until all the relevant medical information is available and has been considered. Exceptions to this do exist, specifically DVLA’s ability to revoke a licence immediately in the interests of road safety and without detailed enquiry if individual case circumstances dictate this.
DVLA’s medical enquiries procedure is generally a 2-stage process:
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Information on the medical condition is sought from the licence holder or applicant, either by paper questionnaire or online
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Information is sought from relevant healthcare professionals, either by questionnaire or provision of medical notes.
In some circumstances DVLA will require independent review by a DVLA-appointed doctor or optician/optometrist. Depending on individual circumstances, a licence applicant may also require a driving assessment and/or appraisal.
Driving during medical enquiries
The time taken to obtain all necessary reports can be lengthy but a licence holder may retain entitlement to drive under Section 88 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. However, a driver whose last licence was revoked or refused because of a medical condition or is a high risk offender re-applying after a drink/drive disqualification from 1 June 2013 would not, however, be eligible to drive until they are issued with a new licence.
The driver may be covered to drive, but this carries implications for road safety in that the licence holder may continue to drive with a medical condition that, on completion of DVLA’s enquiries, may ultimately result in licence withdrawal.
It is for the patient to assure themselves that they are fit to drive. Medical professionals who are asked for an opinion about a patient’s fitness to drive in these circumstances should explain the likely outcome by reference to this guide. The final decision in relation to driver licensing will, however, rest with DVLA.
By reference to DVLA’s guidance, the doctor in charge of an individual’s care should be able to advise the driver whether or not it is safe for them to continue to drive during this period.
Patients must be reminded that if they choose to ignore medical advice to stop driving this may affect the validity of their motor insurance cover. Doctors are advised to formally and clearly document the advice given.
DVLA is solely reliant on doctors and other healthcare professionals for the provision of medical information. To make timely licensing decisions that impact on the safety of the individual and the public, DVLA needs information to be provided as quickly as possible.
When DVLA holds all relevant information, a decision can then be made as to whether or not the driver or applicant satisfies the national medical guidelines and the requirements of the law. A licence is accordingly issued or refused/revoked.
Outcome of medical enquiries
DVLA does not routinely tell doctors of the outcome of a medical enquiry. Drivers are always informed of the outcome, either by being issued a licence or by notification of a refusal or revocation.
For cases in which the driver may not have the insight and/or memory function to abide by the refusal or revocation of their licence – for example, in cognitive impairment, dementia or a mental health condition – DVLA may, in exceptional circumstances, send a decision letter to the GP in line with prevailing legislation and GMC guidance on disclosures in the public interest.
When a notification is received from a doctor in accordance with the GMC guidelines, unless relevant to one of these conditions affecting mental capacity, DVLA will send an acknowledgement letter only to the GP, to confirm receipt of the original notification.
Medical notification form for use by healthcare professionals
The medical notification form for use when patients cannot or will not notify DVLA themselves is available, for use by healthcare professionals only, on GOV.UK. This form is only for patients living in England, Scotland or Wales who hold a driving licence issued by DVLA.
The completed form should be returned to:
Or by post:
Medical Business Support
D7 West
DVLA
Swansea
SA6 7JL
For patients living in Northern Ireland who cannot or will not self-notify, please use these contact details:
Telephone: 0300 200 7861
Drivers Medical Section
Driver and Vehicle Agency
Castlerock Road
Waterside
Coleraine
BT51 3TB
Please fill in all parts of DVLA’s medical notification form in relation to the medical condition of your patient. Parts A and B are for your patient’s and your own details, including your signed and dated declaration that all details are correct to the best of your knowledge.
Part C of the form should be completed in all fields and providing as much detail as possible regarding your patient’s medical condition. You may send clinic letters with this notification, to help provide details of your patient’s medical condition or if you think it will aid the licensing decision.
Please note, your patient can request copies of any medical documents held at DVLA unless you specify in writing that releasing this information could cause serious harm to your patient.
DVLA cannot be responsible for the payment of any fee associated with notification.
Obtaining advice from DVLA on fitness to drive
Contacting DVLA’s doctors
Doctors and other healthcare professionals are always welcome to write to or email one of DVLA’s doctors.
Advice may be sought about a particular driver identified by a unique reference number, or about fitness to drive in general.
The contact details for such enquiries in England, Scotland and Wales are:
Drivers Medical Group
DVLA
Swansea
SA99 1DA
Please note that this service is for medical professionals only.
The contact details for enquiries in Northern Ireland are:
Telephone: 0300 200 7861
Drivers Medical Section
Driver and Vehicle Agency
Castlerock Road
Waterside
Coleraine
BT51 3TB
Seat belt use and exemption
The law makes it compulsory for car occupants to wear seatbelts where fixed. Exemption on medical grounds requires a valid exemption certificate to confirm that, in a medical practitioner’s view, exemption is justified. Exemption will require careful consideration in view of extensive evidence for the safety implications of seatbelts in reducing casualty rates.
View guidance leaflet Medical exemption from compulsory seat belt wearing.
Updates to this page
Published 11 March 2016Last updated 15 January 2024 + show all updates
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Changes to use of the word 'consent' – DVLA now refers to this as 'authorisation', after a recent law change. Changes to the section around outcomes of medical enquiries, to clarify for DPA purposes that DVLA does not routinely share outcomes with clinicians. Removal of the telephony and fax options for medical professionals to contact the Drivers Medical department as these channels are no longer available.
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Addition of General Optical Council advice regarding “Disclosing information with consent” and “Disclosing information without consent”
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Age limits for licensing: Details of Group 2 entitlement have been clarified and updated.
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Clarification of requirement to meet Group 2 standards on reapplication for C1/D1 entitlements.
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Amendments to advice for emergency (blue light) driver licensing and taxi driver licensing.
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Inclusion of updated (April 2017) GMC guidance for doctors.
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Change to information under the headings age limits for licensing and driving during medical enquiries.
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First published.