What we need from you • If you already hold a driving licence and you develop a medical condition which could affect your driving, by law you must tell us. You must also let us know if a medical condition you have already told us about gets worse. If you are not sure whether or not to tell us about a medical condition, ask your GP. He or she should also be able to give you advice on whether you should drive while medical enquiries are being made. • If you are applying for a driving licence, the application form has a health section which you must fill in. You must tell us if you suffer from any of the medical conditions listed on the form. Once we have received your application, the law allows you to drive as long as: • you have held a licence before; • you are not disqualified; and • you have not been, and would not be, refused a licence for medical reasons. Details of this are on the application form. What happens next – stage 1 • Firstly, we will normally ask you to fill in a medical questionnaire to give us more details about your condition. (This may not be needed if you are applying for a lorry or bus licence and you have provided a medical examination report (D4) with your application.) • We will also ask you to give our medical adviser permission to ask for medical information from your doctor, if we need this. What happens next – stage 2 • If possible, we will make a decision based on the information you provide. • If we need more information, our medical adviser may: • contact your doctor or consultant (or both); • arrange for you to be examined by a local medical officer or specialist; or • ask you to take a driving assessment, eye test or driving test. What happens next – Stage 3 Once the medical adviser has all the information he or she needs, we will make a decision about your licence. The decisions we make • You may be able to keep your licence or get a new one. • We may give you a driving licence for a period of one, two or three years if the medical adviser decides that your medical fitness to drive needs to be reviewed in the future. • You may get a driving licence which states that special controls need to be fitted to the vehicles you drive so you can overcome the effects of a physical disability. • We may withdraw your licence or turn down your application. We will only do this if our enquiries confirm that, as a result of your medical condition, you are not fit to drive. If we have to take this course of action we will: • explain why we made this decision and, ifpossible, tell you when you can reapply foryour licence; and • send you a notice which will explain your rightto appeal to a magistrates’ court if you live inEngland or Wales, or to a sheriff court if youlive in Scotland. |
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