Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 26 June (HL16465), how long, on average, it takes the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to reach a decision on whether to reinstate a driving licence to someone who had been deemed previously to be medically unfit to drive once it has received the necessary completed questionnaire from a doctor; and what was the (1) shortest, and (2) longest, time taken by the DVLA to reach such a decision after receiving such a questionnaire in 2018.

The Department is unable to provide the information requested as it would require the interrogation of each medical driving licence case and would therefore result in a disproportionate cost to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

The DVLA dealt with around 750,000 medical cases in 2017/18. It took an average of 32 working days after the receipt of an application to make a licensing decision.