Do doctors inform the DVLA of medical conditions?

Drivers are legally required to let the DVLA know about any medical conditions which could affect their driving ability. While doctors usually won’t directly contact the DVLA, they will tell their patients about conditions they think might affect their ability to drive.

What form do I need to report a medical condition to the DVLA?

The easiest way to report a medical condition to the DVLA is through GOV.UK. Using their A to Z list of conditions, you can check for guidance on an individual condition. If they recommend you report your condition, there will be a link to do so. A variety of forms are available, depending on your condition and the type of vehicle you drive.

Do you need to have a medical to renew your driving licence at 70?

While you don’t have to get a medical to renew your driving licence, having a medical check beforehand makes sense. You should then continue to do this each time your licence needs renewing.

What medical conditions need to be declared for car insurance?

A car insurance quote is affected by how safe a driver you are. Therefore, if you have a medical condition which could make you less safe of a driver, both your insurer and the DVLA need to be told about this.

Over 70s Driving Licence Shake Up | What’s Changed?

In the UK, once you reach 70 years of age, you need to renew your driving licence and every three years after.

A driving licence shake-up for over 70s means certain medical conditions need reporting to the DVLA when making this renewal (such as epilepsy, eye conditions and fainting), as these are more likely to class you as unfit to drive.

In this article, we’ve explained which medical conditions need declaring to the DVLA and the process of making a medical declaration.

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Over 70s Driving Licence Shake-Up and Restrictions

In the UK, people are now required to renew their driving licence when turning 70. This applies to everyone who drives a car, motorbike or a different kind of light vehicle. Once you’ve turned 70, you’ll need to renew your licence every three years.

While people aged 70 and over can apply to have their licence renewed, some people may not have their renewal granted, due to being deemed unfit or unsafe to drive.

It’s really important you’re safe to drive, which is why you shouldn’t continue driving if you have a physical or mental health condition you think could affect your driving. A medical professional such as a doctor may have expressed similar concerns as well.

When renewing your licence, you need to let the DVLA know of any medical conditions you have which may affect your ability to safely drive.

Not reporting a medical condition could lead to a fine of up to £1,000 or even having your vehicle seized.

What else is being discussed?

The DVLA and Driving Mobility are discussing a proposal which would see older adults have a tracking device installed on their vehicles as part of a ‘graduated driving licence’ scheme.

This would restrict older adults with certain health conditions from driving within a 20 or 30-mile radius of their home, along with a night-time ban on driving in some cases.

The Full List of Medical Conditions You May Need to Declare

Below, we’ve provided a full list of medical conditions you may need to report to the DVLA.

Medical Conditions (A-E)
Absence seizures	Acoustic neuroma	Addison’s disease	Agoraphobia	AIDS
Alcohol problems	Alzheimer’s disease	Amaurosis fugax	Amputations	Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Angina	Angioma	Angioplasty	Ankylosing spondylitis	Anorexia nervosa
Anxiety	Aortic aneurysm	Arachnoid cyst	Arrhythmia	Atrial defibrillator
Arteriovenous malformation	Artery occlusion	Arthritis	Asperger syndrome	Asteroid hyalosis
Astigmatism	Ataxia	Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)	Autistic spectrum condition
Balloon angioplasty (leg)	Behçet’s disease	Best’s disease	Bilateral artery occlusion (retinal)	Bipolar disorder
Blackouts	Blepharitis	Blepharospasm	Blood clots	Blood pressure
Brachial plexus injury	Brain abscess, cyst or encephalitis	Brain aneurysm	Brain angioma	Brain haemorrhage
Brain injury (traumatic)	Brain tumours	Branch retinal vein occlusion	Broken limbs	Brugada syndrome
Burr hole surgery
Caesarean section	Cancer	Catheter ablation	Cardiac problems	Carotid artery stenosis
Cataplexy	Central vein occlusion	Central venous thrombosis	Cerebral palsy	Chalazion
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease	Chiari malformation	Choroidal infarction	Choroidal neovascular	Choroiditis
Chronic aortic dissection	Chronic central serous retinopathy	Coats’ disease	Cogan’s dystrophy	Cognitive problems
Colour blindness	Computer vision syndrome	Congenital heart disease	Conjunctivitis	Convulsions
Corneal abrasion	Corneal degeneration	Corneal transplant	Corneal ulcer	Coronary artery bypass or disease
Coronary angioplasty	Corrective laser treatment	Cosmetic eye surgery	Cranial arteritis	Cranial nerve palsy (with double vision)
Cranial nerve palsy (without double vision)	Cystic fibrosis	Cystic prolactinoma
Dacryocystitis	Deafness	Defibrillator	Déjà vu	Dementia
Dendritic ulcer (corneal ulcer)	Depression	Detached retina	Diabetes	Diabetic retinopathy (no laser treatment)
Diabetic retinopathy (with laser treatment)	Dilated cardiomyopathy	Diplopia (double vision)	Dizziness	Drug misuse
Dry eye
Eating disorders	Ectropion (outward eyelid)	Empyema (brain)	Entropion (inward eyelid)	Epilepsy
Episcleritis	Essential tremor	Exophthalmos	Eye tumour

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Medical Conditions (F-K)
Fainting	Farsightedness	Fits	Flashers/floaters (in eye)	Foreign body (in eye)
Fractured skull	Friedreich’s ataxia	Fuchs’ dystrophy
Glaucoma	Global amnesia	Grand mal seizures	Guillain-Barré syndrome
Head injury	Heart attack	Heart arrhythmia	Heart failure	Heart murmurs
Heart palpitations	Heart valve disease or replacement valve	Hemianopia	Herpes simplex keratitis	Herpes zoster ophthalmicus
High blood pressure	HIV	Hodgkin’s lymphoma	Horner’s syndrome	Huntington’s disease
Hydrocephalus	Hypertension	Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy	Hypoglycaemia	Hypoxic brain damage
Hysterectomy
Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD)	Intracerebral haemorrhage	Iris neovascular (Rubeosis)	Iritis	Ischaemic heart disease
Keratoconus	Kidney dialysis	Kidney problems	Korsakoff’s syndrome

Medical Conditions (L-P)
Labyrinthitis	Lazy eye (without double vision)	Learning difficulties	Leber’s optic atrophy	Left bundle branch block
Leukaemia	Lewy body dementia	Limb disability	Long QT syndrome	Longsightedness
Loss of an eye	Low blood sugar	Lumboperitoneal shunt	Lung cancer	Lymphoma
Macroprolactinoma	Macular cyst	Macular hole	Macular oedema	Malignant brain tumours
Malignant melanoma	Manic depressive psychosis	Marfan’s syndrome	Medulloblastoma	Melanoma (ocular)
Memory problems (severe)	Meningioma	Mini-stroke	Monocular vision	Monocularity myopia (shortsightedness)
Motor neurone disease	Multiple sclerosis	Muscular dystrophy	Myasthenia gravis	Myocardial infarction
Myoclonus
Narcolepsy	Neovascularisation of the cornea	Neovascularistion of the optic nerve head	Night blindness	Nystagmus
Obsessive compulsive disorder	Obstructive sleep apnoea	Ocular albinism	Ocular histoplasmosis	Ocular myasthenia gravis (with double vision)
Ocular myasthenia gravis (without double vision)	Ocular rosacea	Ophthalmoplegia (with double vision)	Ophthalmoplegia (without double vision)	Optic atrophy
Optic neuritis
Pacemakers	Palpitations	Paranoia	Paranoid schizophrenia	Paraplegia
Parkinson’s disease	Peripapillary nevus	Peripheral arterial disease	Peripheral neuropathy	Personality disorder
Petit mal seizures	Pinguecula	Pink eye (conjunctivitis)	Pituitary tumour	Posner Schlossman syndrome
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)	Posterior vitreous detachment	Presbyopia	Proptosis	Psychosis
Psychotic depression	Pterygium	Ptosis	Pulmonary arterial hypertension

Medical Conditions (Q-U)
Quadrantanopia
Recurrent corneal erosion	Red eyes	Reis Bucklers corneal dystrophy	Renal dialysis	Retinal artery fugax
Retinal artery thrombosis	Retinal occlusion (artery or vein)	Retinal tear or detachment	Retinal vein thrombosis	Retinoblastoma
Retinopathy (with laser treatment)	Retinopathy fibroplasia	Retinopathy of prematurity	Retrobulbar neuritis	Rubeosis (1 or 2 eyes)
Schizo-affective disorder	Schizophrenia	Scotoma	Seizures	Severe communication disorders
Severe depression	Shortsightedness (myopia)	Sight in one eye only	Sjogren’s lupus syndrome	Sleep apnoea
Sleepiness (excessive)	Spinal problems and injuries	Stargardt’s (juvenile macular degeneration)	Stroke	Stye
Subarachnoid haemorrhage	Subconjunctival haemorrhage	Surgery	Syncope
Tachycardia	Temporal lobe epilepsy	Thyroid related orbitopathy	Tonic clonic fits	Toxoplasma retinitis (toxoplasmosis)
Tourette’s syndrome	Transient global amnesia	Transient ischaemic attack	Tunnel vision
Usher syndrome

Medical Conditions (V-Z)
Valve disease or replacement valve	Vein occlusion	Ventricular defibrillator	Vertigo	Vision in one eye only
Visual acuity (reduced)	Vitreous detachment	Vitreous haemorrhage	VP shunts
Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome
Xanthelasma

For further information or advice surrounding any of these conditions, check out the GOV.UK A-Z guide on health conditions that may affect your driving.

Through the above link, you can click on a specific condition to check whether or not you need to tell the DVLA about it.

Should You Stop Driving If You Have a Medical Condition?

If any of the following apply, you must give up your licence:

Your doctor tells you to stop driving for at least three months
You have a medical condition which affects your ability to drive safely and this condition has lasted for at least three months
You don’t meet the necessary driving standards because of your medical condition

While you’ll need to disclose any medical condition to the DVLA and your insurer in the majority of cases, not all medical conditions will prevent you from being able to drive safely.

Renewing Your Driving Licence

The easiest way to renew your driving licence is online, using GOV.UK. This applies to people in England, Scotland and Wales.

You can also apply by post. The DVLA will send you a D46P application form before you need to renew.

In Northern Ireland, you can apply online through NI Direct.

Making a Medical Declaration

When completing the D46P application form to get a new licence, you’ll be asked to declare any medical conditions. You’ll also be asked whether you meet the eyesight standards for driving.

It’s really important to be completely honest here. Otherwise, you could face a fine.

You should also declare any health condition to your insurers that you’ve told the DVLA about. Not doing so could invalidate your insurance policy.

We’d recommend having a medical check before you renew your licence at 70, and every time you renew your licence after that point.

What Happens Next?

After you’ve told the DVLA about your condition, there are a few things they could do next:

They may make an immediate decision based on the information you’ve given (either accepting or rejecting your application for renewal)
They could contact your GP or a different consultant to help form an opinion. They’ll only make this contact with your permission. They may also arrange for a local medical professional to examine you
They may ask you to undergo a driving assessment, appraisal or eyesight test before making a final decision as to whether your renewal application will be approved or not

If it’s a no and you’ve been deemed unfit to continue driving, you’ll have to give up your driving licence.

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