Telling DVLA about a health condition just got easier

If you hold a driving licence, there are times when you'll need to tell DVLA about your health, for example if you develop a condition or need to renew a short-term medical licence. 

We know that dealing with a health condition can already be a worrying time. So, we’ve been working to make telling us about a condition, and renewing your licence when medical information is needed, as simple and straightforward as possible.   

Our improved online service now allows many more drivers to manage their medical licensing journey online, from telling us about a condition through to renewing their licence. More than 120,000 customers have already used the service, and we've continued to develop it since launch to support more drivers.  

More health conditions can be reported online   

Previously, only a limited number of health conditions could be reported online. Our service now covers more than 1,600 conditions.   

Not every health condition needs to be reported to DVLA, of course. The online service will let you know whether you need to tell us and, if you do, it will guide you through the information we need.   

It also means that if you have more than one health condition, you can tell us about them through our online service. And if you're renewing a short-term medical licence, you can notify us about any new conditions at the same time.   

A more joined-up service   

We’ve also made some important improvements since the service was introduced.   

If you’re renewing your driving licence and you’re aged 70 or over, you can now tell us about a health condition when submitting your renewal application online.  

We've done the same for customers applying for their first provisional driving licence, creating a more joined-up experience without the need to move between separate services.   

The online service is also now available to customers whose driving licence was previously surrendered, revoked or expired, helping more people manage their medical licensing online. 

And the whole service is now available in Welsh, providing the same end-to-end service as the English version.   

Manage your application through your Driver and vehicles account   

The service is connected to your Driver and vehicles account, which means you can save your progress and come back to your application if you need to.   

Once you've submitted it, you can also track the progress of your application through your account.   

If the photograph on your licence needs renewing, you can do that as part of the same journey too. Around 30% of medical licence renewals require a new photograph, so bringing this into the online service removes another separate step for many customers.   

Helping us deal with applications more efficiently 

The improvements are not just about making the application easier to complete.   

We've introduced automation to speed up the initial application review. When you tell us about a health condition online, it comes directly into our casework systems in a structured format. This helps our caseworkers review the information they need and decide what needs to happen next.   

To make a medical licensing decision, we sometimes need further information from customers or healthcare professionals, so not every case can be completed immediately. But making the initial application more straightforward, and giving our caseworkers better information from the outset, helps us deal with cases more efficiently.   

Designed around our customers 

Teams from across DVLA have developed this service, including colleagues who deal with drivers' medical applications every day.   

We've reviewed and updated our medical questionnaires, tested the journeys with customers who have a range of conditions, and designed the service to ask the right questions based on the information they provide. 

Importantly, we've built the service so we can continue improving it. As customer needs change, we can update questions and journeys more easily without having to redesign the whole service.   

We'll continue looking at how we can make the service simpler and enable even more people to deal with us online.   

Check if you need to tell DVLA   

Having a health condition does not necessarily mean you need to stop driving, and not every condition needs to be reported to us. The easiest way to check is on GOV.UK.    

The online service is currently only available for Group 1 drivers (car and motorcycle licence holders).  

If you do need to tell us, the online service will guide you through what you need to do, making it as straightforward as possible to give us the information we need.