Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the time taken to return a driving license revoked on the basis of a notifiable medical condition, after evidence that the individual is fit to drive has been received by the DVLA.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) deals with more than 750,000 medical cases every year. There is a dedicated team in place which is responsible for the continuous improvement of all medical driver licensing services and communications. Letters to customers and medical professionals have been improved, helping to ensure that the DVLA receives the information it needs as quickly as possible.
The DVLA has recruited additional staff to process medical applications and notifications, to make licensing decisions quicker. This includes increasing the number of doctors and introducing nurse caseworkers to deal with more complex cases.
The DVLA is also working with third parties, for example, GPs, consultants and opticians, to reduce turnaround times on the additional information it requires to make licensing decisions.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average time taken has been to return a driving license revoked on the basis of a notifiable medical condition after evidence that the person is fit to drive has been received by the DVLA in each year since 2015.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The specific information requested is not available. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) deals with around 750,000 medical cases each year and aims to complete 90% within 90 working days. The length of time taken to deal with an application following a driving licence being revoked depends on the medical condition involved and whether further information is needed from medical professionals. The table below shows the average working days it took DVLA to make a licensing decision on all medical applications over the last four years.
Financial year | Average working days |
14/15 | 58 |
15/16 | 53 |
16/17 | 37 |
17/18 | 32 |
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to address safety concerns raised by driving test examiners in risk assessments in respect of the new driving test.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) introduced the new practical driving test on 4 December 2017. The new elements of the test were trialled extensively before the launch.
DVSA conducted an internal risk assessment of the new test, which did not identify any unacceptable risk. It also commissioned an independent assessment of the test from The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). The RoSPA report concluded that all new parts of the driving test were low risk.
DVSA is closely monitoring the new driving test and as of 8 January 2018, there have not been any incident reports in relation to the new test elements.