Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has issued guidance to licensing authorities on maximum processing times for licence renewals.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) aims to process all applications as quickly as possible. The DVLA’s target is to dispatch 95 per cent of straightforward online driving licence applications within three working days and 90 per cent of paper applications within ten working days.

The DVLA’s target for driving licence applications where a medical condition must be investigated before a licence can be issued is that the average time to make a licensing decision will be within 50 working days. In the interests of road safety, the DVLA must be satisfied that the required medical standards are met before a licence is issued.