DVLA medical licence delays leave 168,000 drivers in limbo
Thousands of drivers with medical conditions are still stuck waiting for their driving licences amid ongoing DVLA chaos. Julie Lennard, the DVLA’s chief executive, revealed to MPs on 24 November 2022 that a staggering 168,000 medical driving licence applications remain unprocessed as of 23 November.
Medical licence backlog spirals out of control
A medical driving licence is required for drivers with conditions like sleep apnoea, epilepsy, or heart problems that must be declared to the DVLA. The pandemic and strike action hammered the DVLA’s processing times, which the agency promised to fix by September 2022.
But new figures tell a different story.
Between 1 September and 16 September 2022, only 62.5% of decisions on medical licence applications were made within the government’s 90-day target — a far cry from the pre-pandemic 90% benchmark.
Medical applications clog up DVLA system
- As of 16 September, 300,454 total licence applications were piling up
- 212,642 (70.7%) of these were medical licence applications
- This is a huge jump from 39.2% in March 2022
At the peak of the backlog in September 2021, the DVLA was drowning under 1.1 million pending applications, both medical and standard.
DVLA crisis: Millions delayed and frustrated drivers
A National Audit Office (NAO) report paints a grim picture: Of 24.3 million applications processed between April 2020 and September 2022, 3.3 million took longer than normal.
Customer enquiries shot up sevenfold during the pandemic, with 5.6 million going unanswered at their peak in June 2021. Complaints skyrocketed from 4,300 in 2019-20 to over 31,900 in 2021-22.
To tackle the chaos, the DVLA pumped £24 million into hiring 362 staff, paying overtime, and opening two new offices. They plan to spend another £10 million to clear the mess.
Additionally, new laws this year widened the range of healthcare professionals allowed to fill out medical questionnaires, aiming to speed up the process.
But with tens of thousands still caught in limbo, drivers with medical conditions face a nervous wait before hitting the road again.
