Driving licence law change speeds up DVLA fitness-to-drive checks

Motorists who want medical clearance to acquire a driving licence ought to have the ability to get approval extra rapidly following a change within the regulation.

From 20 July, the DVLA has relaxed its guidelines on who can perform medical questionnaires in an effort to chop a backlog and ease strain on docs.

The questionnaires assess an individual’s health to drive and are used for brand new licence functions and licence renewals.

Until now solely docs registered with the General Medical Council have been permitted to finish the questionnaires however, following a consultation, the change to the Road Traffic Act 1988 means docs can now refer the duty to certified healthcare employees from different skilled our bodies.

This contains specialist nurses and opticians, who will have the ability to present data the place a driver has declared a medical condition on a licence utility.

The DVLA says the change will pace up the licensing course of for tons of of hundreds of motorists, who’ve confronted important delays within the processing of medical functions.

DVLA chief govt Julie Lennard stated: “Every yr we’re receiving an rising variety of medical licensing functions from drivers.

“This regulation change, which widens the pool of healthcare professionals who can full DVLA questionnaires, improves the method for these notifying DVLA of medical circumstances while lowering the executive burden on docs, benefitting drivers and the NHS alike”.

It estimated that as many as 200,000 drivers have been ready on medical clearance to drive and a few have been being tempted to show to different practitioners who didn’t know their full historical past quite than ready for an appointment with their very own GP.

It warned that this might result in some drivers being accredited for a licence regardless of not being medically match to drive.

Every yr the DVLA makes round 500,000 choices on motorists’ suitability to drive, utilizing the medical questionnaires accomplished by a health care provider or guide as the idea for a lot of of those choices.

While July’s change impacts medical questionnaires, it doesn’t apply to the extra in-depth D4 Medical Examination Report which can nonetheless should be accomplished by a health care provider or guide who’s registered with the GMC.