Waiting on NHS is delaying driving license applications, says DVLA boss
Delays in processing driving licence applications from people with health conditions are largely as a result of long waits for information from the NHS, the chief executive of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has said.
Julie Lennard, boss of the DVLA, told the Commons’ Transport Committee: “We’re very dependent in a lot of those cases for the NHS to come back to us, and the NHS has been under significant pressure… so for some people, they are waiting longer than we would like.”
She added that where the DVLA does not have to wait for information on a user’s medical conditions, “we are making those decisions very rapidly.”
“Where more delay comes in is generally speaking when we are having to write out either for more information from the driver themselves, from their GP, from their consultants and that particularly becomes an issue when one person has multiple medical conditions, which is increasingly common.”
The agency has struggled with huge backlogs since the pandemic, which saw some individuals waiting so long for their driving licenses they lost their jobs or developed mental health conditions.
A particular concern has been wait times for people with health conditions, who made up the majority of those affected and as the DVLA waits on medical professionals for key documents that detail their conditions.
Lennard said yesterday that the committee was prioritising licence applications from drivers whose livelihoods depended on it, but added: “Again, we do tend to be reliant on hearing back from the NHS to get those through.”
In November, the DVLA admitted that 168,000 drivers with health conditions were still waiting for licences and that it had missed its post-pandemic recovery targets.
That backlog has been significantly reduced this year, but Lennard said today that there were still challenges ahead.
The NHS and the DVLA were contacted for comment.