DVLA delays delay 77,000 driver’s licenses for people with medical conditions due to scandals at home

There are 300,000 driver’s license applications at the DVLA counters, 77,000 of which are more than three months overdue.I can reveal.

In March, the government agency came under fire after admitting it had a backlog of more than 700,000 applications. That number has risen as many employees have been able to work from home during the initial lockdown.

Two-thirds of pending applications come from people with conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes and heart problems, whose applications take longer.

About 9,000 people who apply for medical clearances every week find that their applications are not processed within the three-month deadline set by the DVLA.

This is in line with the FOI request from Heycar, the used car market, and delays have left tens of thousands of motorists without a valid driver’s license.

Drivers who fail to report these conditions could face loss of insurance, a £1,000 fine or even criminal prosecution.

The DVLA says applicants may continue to drive unless instructed by a doctor not to do so “in most cases”.

According to the Netherlands National Audit Office (NAO), between March 2020 and June 2020, the number of employees working at the site dropped from about 3,300 to about 1,000 people each.

Another impediment to processing times was the suspension of referral to the DVLA by the National Health Service during the pandemic, meaning that many drivers with medical conditions were unable to obtain official medical clearance.

Beginning in July, a new law allowed specialist nurses and other health care professionals to conduct checkups, which began to ease congestion.

The backlog of the pandemic prompted then Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps to commit to digitizing the DVLA, while then Prime Minister Boris Johnson threatened to privatize the “ass” of underperforming government agencies.

Earlier this month, Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said that while the DVLA is currently digitizing its processes to make the application process more efficient, “the full benefits will be in another three to five years.”

Of the 24.3 million applications processed by the DVLA between April 2020 and September 2022, according to the NAO, 3.3 million took longer than planned: three weeks for most clearances and three months for medical clearances.

There is a growing proportion of overdue driver applications for medical reasons, which take longer to process. Many of them are vulnerable people who rely on their car for daily life.

A separate freedom of information inquiry earlier this month found that 926,000 drivers had not renewed their licenses that had expired last year, which is one in 50 overall.

Sara Tooze, consumer affairs editor at Heycar, said: “We still regularly hear from older, vulnerable motorists and their concerned loved ones how difficult it is to renew a medical driver’s license or talk to someone at the DVLA about their application.

“We encourage the DVLA to publish monthly data on the average turnaround time for medical driver’s license applications.

“We would also like to see the DVLA set up a dedicated hotline for medical driver’s license applications as the current system is failing some of the most vulnerable members of British society.”

A DVLA spokesperson said the backlog of standard applications was “cleared” earlier this year.

They added: “There have been some delays in the processing of requests when drivers have reported sickness to us, but about half of the requests currently being processed are waiting for more information from a third party (usually a doctor or the client themselves) before a decision can be made. created.”

“If DVLA were a company, it would go bankrupt”

Andrew Young, 69, lives near Worcester and had to apply for a class 1 truck license to drive his motorhome.

“I was born with two veins on my aortic valve and had valve replacement surgery in 2015. I don’t need any medication, but they have to tick the box that covers any heart problem.

“My license was due to be renewed in September 2021 so I visited a doctor in August 2021 to sign up for a truck license as I drive a motor home which requires a license. I thought it was done, but in March 2022, the DVLA sent me an email asking for information from a cardiologist. Then in May 2022 they sent a letter saying the same thing.

“My cardiologist is back, but the DVLA has followed her. I tried to call, but no one picked up the phone after an hour. Then I tried several times to get an answer that at that time they would not take my call. I then entered all this information into the DVLA complaint page and received a case number. This was five weeks ago.

“Since then, I have not received a response, although they promised a two-week processing time.

“I used to work for a car manufacturer – on various contracts with the UK government – ​​and drive trucks around the world, and have since taken my motorhome to Europe several times. The local police know that there is a UK department that is not doing what it should. They just raise their eyebrows and say, “Oh yes, it’s England again.”

“This is completely unacceptable. It’s a government agency that I’ve paid taxes on for the last 50 years, and it’s poorly funded. If DVLA were a corporation, it would go bankrupt.