Unused driver’s license scandal exposes retirees for fear-mongering

Transport ministers have warned that Britain’s system for assessing whether older drivers can drive safely may no longer matter.

The growing number of older drivers in the UK and the system used to assess their health suitability to stay behind the wheel of a car are challenging the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) to do so safely.

Concerns about the ability to drive arose when MPs questioned Department of Transportation officials and Julie Lennard, chief executive of the DVLA, about delays in issuing driver’s licenses.

The state licensing agency has been criticized for a huge number of pending driver’s license applications, of which 77,000 were delayed by more than three months.

MEPs have been told that two-thirds of pending applications come from people with conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes and heart problems, which take longer to process.

Despite the creation of a new specialized unit in Birmingham to deal with the problem, Ms Lennard said many of the delays were due to difficulties in getting medical experts to assess individual cases.

The DVLA hired 43 doctors and eight nurses to review applications, but it also had to write to individual GPs and consultants to get expert advice on more than 300 different medical conditions that could make applying for a driver’s license risky for a driver. get.

At the height of the pandemic, medical care elsewhere was focused on treating victims of the virus, and there were delays.

According to Ms Lennard, GPs’ fees are not part of their contract with the NHS, but are private work for which they are paid directly by the DVLA. Case information often had to be sent via secure mail for clinical evaluation because it was not possible to send the information digitally. According to her, this led to delays over which they had little or no control.

There is no maximum driving age in the UK, but all drivers are required to renew their driving license when they turn 70 and every three years thereafter. People doing lengthening are asked if they have any medical conditions and if they have vision requirements.

Emma Ward, Director of Roads for the Department of Transportation, told MPs in the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) that medical fitness legislation for motor vehicles needs to be reviewed. “We know that the legal norms on which the medical examination of the driver is based have not been observed for a long time.

“We have an aging population, we have more people who want to drive longer, we have even more people who have a driver’s license for a much longer period of time,” she said. “We have a significant number of people over 70 who are licensed and want to drive.”

Ms. Ward said she had already brought the matter to the attention of the new Secretary of State for Transportation, Mark Harper.

Members of Parliament and the DVLA have received thousands of letters complaining about the delays, said PAC leader Dame Meg Hillier, and many have spoken of the tragic consequences of the delays, including an elderly man who was forced to spend an additional £3,000 on public transport. get him to visit his wife, who was living with Alzheimer’s, in a nursing home.

Another story she cited was that of a bus driver from south-east London who said he was on the verge of death as a bus driver because he failed to renew his license in time.

Julie Lennard said DVLA staff are processing these emails and thousands of others, trying to prioritize as much as possible.

Dame Bernadette Kelly, a senior Department of Transportation official, said everyone involved knew this was more than just a numbers game and that there were real people with real consequences.

The DVLA had a pre-pandemic contingency plan that worked well for more than 80 percent of work processing licenses, but was also not prepared for employees to work from home, Ms Lennard said.

The size and confidentiality of the DVLA database posed huge problems, and only a small number of employees started working with laptops. She said that 60 per cent of DVLA employees continued to work at their Swansea office after virus protection measures were put in place.

DVLA has secured a second property nearby to increase the number of requests to be safely processed. Ms Lennard said she regrets being given a second office in Swansea as it caused major delays as Swansea and Wales saw high numbers of Covid infections in a second wave on a larger scale. “Looking back, I would like us to get an office in Birmingham first as that would give us more sustainability.”

The commission learned that the labor dispute added to their problems. She told MPs that relations with local representatives of the Public and Commercial Services Union were good and productive until full-time national officials were brought into play in 2021 following reports of large numbers of Covid infections at DVLA offices in Swansea.