DVLA Testing and Driving Risk Profile

What is a DVLA driving risk assessment?

If you have a health condition that could affect your ability to drive safely, your doctor may need to assess how this affects your fitness to drive. This looks at whether your condition means you need to tell the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), and whether any restrictions need to apply to your licence.

Why might this apply to me?

Many health conditions can affect the skills you need for safe driving, including your vision, memory, judgement, reaction time, and ability to control your vehicle. Your doctor may need to consider your fitness to drive if you're diagnosed with, or being treated for, a condition that could affect any of these.

By law, you must tell DVLA about any injury or illness likely to affect your safe driving, unless it's a short-term condition that isn't expected to last beyond 3 months.

What are the benefits of this process?

Having your fitness to drive properly assessed means any risk to you or other road users can be identified and managed, rather than left unaddressed. It also means that, where possible, you can keep driving safely with the right support or licence conditions, rather than losing your licence unnecessarily.

If your condition improves or is well controlled, this same process is how your licence can later be restored or a restriction lifted.

Does this differ depending on my licence or condition?

The assessment depends on the type of licence you hold:

• Group 1 licences cover cars and motorcycles
• Group 2 licences cover large lorries and buses, and carry substantially higher medical standards, because of the size of the vehicle and the amount of time spent driving.

DVLA also defines an acceptable level of risk differently for each group. For Group 1 drivers, a condition carrying a 20% or greater chance of a sudden disabling event, such as a loss of consciousness, within a year is considered too great a risk to drive. For Group 2 drivers, who spend far longer at the wheel and drive larger vehicles, this threshold is much stricter, at 2% or greater.

How do I prepare?

There's no special preparation for this kind of assessment. It helps to be ready to tell your doctor about your symptoms, any relevant health conditions, and how these might be affecting your day-to-day activities, including driving.

You also have a duty to respond fully and accurately if DVLA or a healthcare professional asks you for information about your condition.

What happens during the process?

If DVLA needs to assess your fitness to drive, the process usually follows these steps:

1. you, or your doctor if you're unable or unwilling to do so yourself, notify DVLA of your condition
2. DVLA asks you for information about your medical condition, either through a paper questionnaire or online
3. DVLA asks your doctor or other relevant healthcare professionals for information, either through a questionnaire or your medical notes
4. in some cases, DVLA may also ask you to see a DVLA-appointed doctor or optician, or to complete a driving assessment
5. once all the necessary information has been gathered, DVLA decides whether to issue, restrict, refuse or revoke your licence.

What happens after the process?

While DVLA is making its enquiries, you may be able to keep driving under a specific legal provision, as long as your last licence wasn't revoked or refused for a medical reason. It's still down to you to be sure you're safe to drive during this time, and your doctor can advise you on this based on DVLA's guidance.

Once a decision is made, DVLA will always write to tell you the outcome, whether that's a licence being issued, restricted, refused or revoked. DVLA doesn't routinely update your doctor with the outcome, though in a small number of cases, such as where a condition affects your memory or understanding, DVLA may also write to your GP.

What are the risks?

If you continue driving against medical advice, or without telling DVLA about a condition you're legally required to report, this can affect the validity of your motor insurance. Your doctor may also need to break patient confidentiality and contact DVLA directly, without your consent, if they believe your continuing to drive puts you or others at serious risk of harm.