DVLA Medical Licence Delays Averaged 11 Weeks All Year, Official Figures Confirm

Drivers who declare a medical condition on a licence renewal waited an average of 56.66 working days, more than 11 weeks, for a decision across the whole of the 2025/26 financial year, according to figures the DVLA released under Freedom of Information law. That average sits well above the agency's own target of 50 working days, and it covers an entire year rather than a single bad month, showing the delay is now the normal experience rather than an occasional backlog.

The contrast with non-medical renewals is stark. The DVLA processed more than 5.18 million non-medical licence applications in the same year, and more than 5.15 million of those, over 99 per cent, were completed within the agency's target of three working days online or 10 working days by post. A driver who ticks a box declaring diabetes, a heart condition, glaucoma, or another reportable condition can expect a wait roughly 18 times longer than a driver who does not.

Around 1.4 million driving licence holders in England and Wales are already aged 70 or over, and that number keeps growing every year as the population ages and more people choose to keep driving well past retirement. Every one of them faces a medical declaration at each three yearly renewal, which means the group most exposed to an 11 week wait is also one of the largest and fastest growing groups of licence holders on the road.

Real Drivers, Real Consequences

Behind the average sit individual cases that stretch far beyond 11 weeks. One Welsh driver renewing her licence at age 82 declared glaucoma in January, only for her doctor to later confirm she did not have the condition at all. Months later she was still waiting for the DVLA to update her file, unable to get through by phone and increasingly reluctant to drive at all while her application remained open. Another driver's wife applied in November and waited more than six months for a decision, a wait so far outside the norm that when he asked a local Facebook group whether others had faced similar delays, he received a dozen similar accounts within an hour, some describing waits of 10 months or longer.

The Right Most Drivers Do Not Know They Have

A large part of the anxiety around these delays comes from uncertainty over whether a driver can legally stay behind the wheel while an application sits with the DVLA. Section 88 of the Road Traffic Act answers that question directly: a driver can continue driving throughout the wait, provided they held a valid licence before applying, meet the medical standard required, have not been told by a doctor or the DVLA to stop driving, and only drive vehicles they were entitled to drive on their previous licence.

Section 88 is not an official document or a card that arrives in the post. It is a legal entitlement that applies automatically once those conditions are met, and it lasts for as long as the application remains open, up to a maximum of 12 months from the date it was submitted. Drivers who are unsure whether they qualify can find the DVLA's own explanation in its INF188/6 guidance, available on gov.uk, and print or save a copy to carry alongside an expired licence in case a check ever raises the question.

The delay is not limited to older drivers renewing an ordinary car licence. Professional HGV drivers who need a medical review to keep an entitlement they rely on for work have separately reported waits of around nine weeks, long enough in some cases to put a job on hold while paperwork sits in a queue. A House of Commons Library briefing on reform of the DVLA has also flagged medical licensing delays as one of the agency's most persistent service problems, alongside separate pressure on its call centre and postal processing capacity.

Why the Backlog Has Built Up

The DVLA says it is seeing exceptionally high demand for applications involving medical conditions, and that more complex cases often require detailed supporting information from GPs, consultants, or opticians before a decision can be made, information that sits outside the agency's control once it has been requested. A new casework system introduced this year is intended to speed up processing as more applications move through the DVLA's online portal rather than by post, and the agency has apologised directly to drivers who experienced the longest waits.

How to Fight Back

Apply online rather than by post wherever the declared condition allows it. Online applications are processed faster on average, and they let a driver track progress rather than waiting for a letter.

Submit every piece of supporting medical evidence with the initial application rather than waiting to be asked. Missing information is one of the most common reasons a case stalls, and a complete file the first time avoids a second round of correspondence that can add months to the process.

Check Section 88 eligibility immediately after applying, not after the wait becomes stressful. Knowing in writing that continued driving is lawful removes one entire source of anxiety while a decision is pending.

Contact a local MP if a case runs well past the DVLA's own target. Caseworkers in MPs' offices can request updates directly from the agency through a dedicated correspondence channel that often moves faster than the DVLA's general phone line.

Keep a written log of every call made to the DVLA, including the date, the reference number given, and what was said. If a complaint becomes necessary later, that record supports it far more effectively than a memory of several unanswered calls.

Use the DVLA's official complaints process if a case runs well beyond published targets without explanation. It will not speed up an individual medical assessment, but it creates a formal record and, in the worst handled cases, can support a claim for expenses the delay itself caused.

Renew as early as the DVLA's own paperwork allows rather than waiting for an expiry date to approach. A driver who starts the medical declaration process with months of an existing licence still valid has far more room to absorb an 11 week wait than one who applies at the last possible moment.

What the DVLA Says It Is Doing About It

The agency has pointed to its new Drivers Medical Casework System, now fully operational, and an online portal launched on 31 March that lets drivers report a new medical condition and apply for a licence without relying on the post. It has also taken on 43 additional medical caseworkers, with 22 more expected to join shortly, a direct answer to the scale of the backlog. Whether that investment closes the gap to the 50 day target will only become clear once a full financial year of data under the new system has been published.

A Backlog That Was Missing Its Target Before the Year Even Began

For the drivers living through an 11 week wait, and the far larger number waiting a good deal longer, the DVLA's own figures now confirm what patient forums and family Facebook groups have been describing for months: a system that was already missing its own target long before this financial year even began, and one that leaves the burden of proving fitness to drive resting almost entirely on the driver stuck waiting for an answer.

Glenda Edwards, the Welsh driver whose case brought the delays to light, put the human cost in plain terms: the wait had "a devastating impact" on her confidence behind the wheel, months after a doctor confirmed the condition she declared was never there to begin with. Her experience is the clearest illustration of what an average buried in a Freedom of Information response actually means for the person living through it.

Sources:

• https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2026-06-09/dvla-lengthy-waits-for-drivers-with-medical-conditions-to-renew-licenses
• https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64edcf3a13ae1500116e2f5d/inf1886-can-i-drive-while-my-application-is-with-dvla.pdf