Health and your licence: what you must tell DVLA, and the cost of not telling

Diabetes, epilepsy, fainting, sleep apnoea, heart conditions, strokes, glaucoma — DVLA calls these "notifiable", which means the driver has to report them personally. Say nothing and you face a fine of up to £1,000, plus prosecution if you have an accident.

What exactly do you have to tell DVLA?

Two situations trigger the duty: you develop a notifiable medical condition or disability, or a condition or disability has got worse since you got your licence.

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Notifiable conditions are anything that could affect your ability to drive safely. GOV.UK's examples are diabetes or taking insulin, syncope (fainting), heart conditions including atrial fibrillation and pacemakers, sleep apnoea, epilepsy, strokes and glaucoma.

The list is open-ended, which is why DVLA maintains an A to Z of medical conditions: each entry says whether you must report it and how.

What does staying quiet cost?

You could be fined up to £1,000 if you do not tell DVLA about a condition that might affect your ability to drive safely. You could also be prosecuted if you have an accident.

How do you report it?

That depends on your licence. With a car or motorcycle licence you can report the condition online, at the same place you check whether it needs reporting at all.

With a bus, coach or lorry licence you cannot: you have to send DVLA a form or questionnaire. Different conditions have different forms, and the address is printed on the form itself.

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In Northern Ireland you contact the Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) instead of DVLA.

You do not need to make a separate report if you are applying for your first licence or renewing at 70 or over — the application form asks you for the information.

What happens once you have told them?

You get a decision by letter. Your application may need further information from a healthcare professional, in which case DVLA might contact your doctor or consultant, arrange for you to be examined, or ask you to take a driving assessment, an eyesight test or a driving test.

An application referred to a doctor takes longer than usual — unless you are applying for a bus or lorry licence.

One important detail: you can usually keep driving while DVLA are considering your application.

What can DVLA decide?

There are four outcomes. You may need a new driving licence. You may get a shorter licence — for 1, 2, 3 or 5 years. You may have to adapt your car by fitting special controls. Or you must stop driving and give up your licence.

If you are told to stop, you have three options: send DVLA more medical evidence that was not in the original assessment (quoting the reference number from the decision letter), reapply for your licence if the letter says you can, or appeal the decision.

On a short-term licence, DVLA sends a renewal letter 90 days before it expires.

When must you surrender your licence?

You must surrender it if any one of these is true: your doctor tells you to stop driving for 3 months or more; your condition affects your ability to drive safely and lasts for 3 months or more; or you do not meet the required standards for driving because of your condition.

Surrendering is voluntary and has a practical advantage: it makes reapplying easier than it is after a revocation. For a car or motorcycle licence you download the declaration of voluntary surrender; for a bus, coach or lorry licence it is the VOC99/CERT form, sent in with the licence itself. There is no legal age at which you must stop driving in the UK.

If you do not surrender, you must still inform DVLA. They carry out medical checks and decide; while your licence is valid you can drive unless your doctor has told you not to. If DVLA decides it is not safe, your licence is revoked.

And what about eyesight?

You must wear glasses or contact lenses every time you drive if you need them to meet the standards of vision. Those standards are specific: read a number plate from 20 metres away — about the length of five parked cars — and have a visual acuity of at least decimal 0.5 (6/12) on the Snellen scale using both eyes together.

You report any eyesight problem affecting both eyes, or the remaining eye if you have sight in one. Being short or long sighted or colour blind does not count. Lorry and bus drivers face a higher bar: at least 0.8 (6/7.5) in the better eye and 0.1 (6/60) in the other.