Medical Conditions You Must Tell the DVLA About (Full 2026 List)

You must tell the DVLA about a “notifiable” medical condition if you hold a driving licence and either develop that condition or it gets worse. According to gov.uk, a notifiable condition is “anything that could affect your ability to drive safely,” and you can be fined up to £1,000 if you do not report one. Most people report online in minutes and keep their licence.

That is the short version, and for a lot of people it is the whole story. But “notifiable” covers a long A-to-Z list, the rules are slightly different if you are still learning, and there is a lot of scary, out-of-date advice floating around. So let me walk you through it properly, from the passenger seat, the way I would with a pupil who has just been diagnosed with something and is worried it ends their driving.

What is a notifiable medical condition?

A notifiable condition is any medical condition or disability that could affect your ability to drive safely. That is the DVLA’s own wording, and it is deliberately broad. It is not a list of “illnesses” so much as a list of things that might, on a bad day, change how safely you control a car – a seizure, a blackout, sight loss, a heart rhythm problem, a condition that affects your limbs or your judgement.

Two things trigger the duty to tell them:

• you develop a notifiable condition after you got your licence, or
• an existing condition has got worse since you were licensed.

The DVLA (in England, Scotland and Wales) and the DVA in Northern Ireland are the bodies legally responsible for deciding who is fit to drive. Your GP or consultant does not report it for you in most cases – the legal duty sits with you, the licence holder. That surprises people, so it is worth saying plainly: telling your doctor is not the same as telling the DVLA.

Which medical conditions must be reported to the DVLA?

There are hundreds of notifiable conditions. The DVLA keeps a full A-to-Z on gov.uk, and the honest answer to “is mine on the list?” is check the A-to-Z for your exact condition, because the rules vary by how severe it is and how it is treated. Below is a representative list of the conditions most people ask about, grouped so you can scan it.

Group	Conditions that are commonly notifiable
Neurological / seizures	Epilepsy, any type of seizure or blackout, stroke or mini-stroke (TIA), Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, brain tumour, brain injury, Huntington’s disease, motor neurone disease
Heart and circulation	Heart attack, angina, arrhythmia, heart failure, an implanted defibrillator (ICD), some pacemaker situations, heart-valve disease, an aortic aneurysm over a certain size
Diabetes	Insulin-treated diabetes; diabetes managed by tablets that carry a risk of low blood sugar (hypos)
Eyesight	Sight in one eye only (monocular vision), loss of an eye, double vision, tunnel vision, a visual field defect, retinitis pigmentosa, or any problem affecting both eyes
Mental health / cognition	Dementia, severe depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, psychosis, a serious memory or cognitive problem
Sleep and breathing	Obstructive sleep apnoea causing excessive daytime sleepiness, narcolepsy
Other	Alcohol or drug dependence, a serious limb disability affecting your ability to control a car, some kidney conditions

That table is a guide, not the law – the definitive source is the gov.uk A-to-Z. If your condition is not listed anywhere, or you are unsure whether yours has crossed the “affects safe driving” line, contact the DVLA and ask. It is free to ask, and it settles the question.

What about a condition that lasts less than 3 months?

You generally do not need to report a short-term illness or injury that will clear up. The three-month mark is the useful rule of thumb: if a doctor tells you to stop driving for 3 months or more, or your condition affects your safe driving and lasts 3 months or more, that is when it becomes a DVLA matter (and, at that point, you can also choose to give up your licence voluntarily – more on that below). A broken wrist that heals in six weeks is not usually a notification; epilepsy is.

How do I tell the DVLA about a medical condition?

For a car or motorcycle licence, the fastest route is online. Here is the process:

1. Go to the gov.uk “Check if a health condition affects your driving” tool and find your exact condition in the A-to-Z.
2. The tool tells you whether that condition is notifiable and links you straight to the correct online form or, for some conditions, a specific paper questionnaire.
3. Fill it in with honest detail – what the condition is, when it was diagnosed, your treatment, and your doctors’ details so the DVLA can request medical evidence if they need it.
4. Submit it and keep a note of the date. You will get a decision by post.

If you hold a bus, coach or lorry (Group 2) licence, the medical standards are stricter and you usually have to send a form or questionnaire rather than a quick online report. If you live in Northern Ireland, you deal with the DVA via nidirect, not the DVLA.

Reporting online is free. Do not pay a third-party “DVLA condition reporting service” – the official gov.uk route is the only one you need, and it costs nothing.

What happens after you tell the DVLA?

Most people who report a condition keep their licence. That is the single most important thing to hear, because fear of losing the licence is exactly what stops people reporting. The DVLA’s own blog has said that most people who report a condition, done online, get to keep driving.

Once you have reported, the DVLA assesses your case. To do that they may contact your GP or consultant for medical evidence, arrange for you to be examined, or ask you to take a driving assessment or eyesight test. After they have what they need, they will decide one of the following:

• you can keep your current licence;
• you are issued a short-term medical licence – valid for 1, 2, 3 or 5 years – so your fitness is reviewed regularly;
• you can carry on driving but must adapt your car (for example with hand controls), which is added to your licence as a code;
• you must stop driving and give up your licence, at least for now.

A decision can take a while – allow up to a few weeks for a straightforward case, and longer if they need to write to your consultant. In many situations you can keep driving while they consider your case, but do not assume it; if a doctor has told you to stop, stop, and wait for the DVLA.

Giving up your licence voluntarily

Sometimes the cleanest option is to hand the licence back yourself. You can voluntarily give up your driving licence if your doctor tells you to stop driving for 3 months or more, if your condition affects safe driving and lasts 3 months or more, or if you no longer meet the required medical standards. Giving it up voluntarily is usually quicker to sort out than a formal revocation, and you can apply to get your licence back – reapplying up to 8 weeks before you expect to be fit again – once you meet the standard.

What is the fine for not telling the DVLA?

You can be fined up to £1,000 if you do not tell the DVLA about a medical condition that affects your driving. That is the headline penalty, and on its own it is reason enough to spend ten minutes on the form. But the more serious risk is what happens next: if you are involved in an accident and it turns out you had an unreported notifiable condition, you can be prosecuted. That is a criminal matter, not a £1,000 slip.

There is an insurance sting in the tail too. Your car insurer will normally ask whether you have any medical conditions and whether you have told the DVLA. If you have a condition that affects your driving and you have not declared it, an insurer can refuse a claim or treat the policy as invalid. Declaring a condition rarely bumps a premium much; driving on an invalid policy can cost you everything.

To be clear, none of this is the same as penalty points. A medical revocation is a fitness-to-drive decision, not an endorsement – it does not put points on your record. If it is points you are actually worried about, that is a separate topic, and our guide to how many points are on your licence covers that side of things.

Can I learn to drive if I have a medical condition?

Yes – a huge number of people with a notifiable condition learn to drive and pass, and having a condition does not automatically shut the door. When you apply for your first provisional licence, the application asks about your health, and you declare any notifiable condition right there. The DVLA assesses it as part of issuing the provisional, so it is dealt with before you ever book a lesson, not sprung on you later.

A couple of practical points if you are at the very start:

• Declare it on the provisional application. Do not leave it off hoping to sort it later. It is the same honesty the DVLA expects of a full-licence holder, and getting it clear up front means you learn with total peace of mind. Our step-by-step guide on applying for a provisional driving licence walks through the health questions.
• The provisional can be time-limited too. If the DVLA issues a short-term licence because of a condition, it works the same as any provisional while it lasts – and it is worth knowing how long a provisional licence lasts so you keep an eye on the renewal date.
• You still have to meet the eyesight standard (see below) – that applies to every learner from the very first lesson.

If your condition affects how you physically operate the car, an approved instructor can help you find the right vehicle and adaptations, and the DVLA may want a driving assessment as part of clearing you. That is normal, not a black mark.

At GetMyPass, when someone books an intensive course we ask about this early precisely so nothing derails your week of lessons. If you are a complete beginner getting cleared to start, our Elite intensive course (50 hours, built for people learning from zero) gives you the space to build the car up slowly around whatever you are working with. And if you just want to understand the shape of a course first, how our intensive courses work lays it out.

The eyesight standard every driver must meet

Eyesight has its own hard rules, and they apply to learners and full-licence holders alike. According to gov.uk, to drive a car you must:

• read a number plate from 20 metres away – that is about the length of 5 parked cars (this is the exact check an examiner does at the start of your practical test);
• have a visual acuity of at least 6/12 on the Snellen scale, measured with both eyes together (or your one eye if you have sight in one eye only), wearing glasses or contact lenses if you need them;
• have an adequate field of vision, which your optician can test.

If you need glasses or contact lenses to hit that standard, you must wear them every time you drive. And you must tell the DVLA about any eyesight problem affecting both eyes, or your remaining eye if you only have one. A single short-sighted prescription that glasses fully correct is not usually notifiable – a progressive condition or a field-of-vision loss is.