Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her department is taking to ensure provisional driving license applications involving medical conditions are assessed within DVLA target times.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) aims to process all applications as quickly as possible. There are no delays in applications for a provisional licence where there is no medical condition involved. The DVLA’s target for driving licence applications is to dispatch 95 per cent within three working days for straightforward online applications and 90 per cent within ten working days for straightforward paper applications. In the current financial year, the DVLA has achieved 100 per cent for online applications and 99.9 per cent for paper applications.

Driving licence applications where a medical condition must be investigated can take longer to process as the DVLA is often reliant on receiving information from third parties, including medical professionals, before a licence can be issued.

The DVLA is currently experiencing an increase in the volume and complexity of driving licence applications. Unfortunately, this has led to longer waiting times for some customers. In 2024/25 the DVLA made more than 830,000 medical licensing decisions with forecasts showing that more than 925,000 medical applications and notifications will be received in 2025/26.

To keep up with growing customer demand and to offer a better service, the DVLA is updating its online service and is launching a new casework system which will deliver significant improvements to drivers with medical conditions. These enhancements, alongside the recruitment of additional staff to deal with medical applications and answer telephone calls, will deliver real improvements for customers.