How Long After DVLA Medical Will A Licence be issued?

Convicted Driver Insurance

Luna2000

Established Member
It has taken me 18 weeks to get to the stage of having a DVLA medical (Tuesday 19th February.) Lots of administration reasons for this (none of them mine.) Medichecks CDT test reading taken on Monday 11th Feb was 0.7% so assuming it is correct I don't have any worries on that score. I would just like anyone's experience of the length of time I will have to wait assuming a non problematic medical for a new licence to be issued?
 
I had the licence re-issued within a week. DVLA had the lab results on the CDT back in three days but hadn't received the DVLA doctor's report until a couple of days' after that. They had already been quizzing my GP two month's previously so, I'm guessing they didn't need to do that again. I think this is where the delays occur if any questions that are answered need to be followed up again with your own GP. The statutory letter that I got back in March was that it may take up to six weeks for a response with my GP.
 
Bacchus (the Roman God of Wine. Hmm!) The DVLA have already written to my GP and received a report. This was on the basis of me answering honestly yes to one question on the DR1 form i.e. 1a "Within the last 3 years have you been dependent or misused alcohol." GIven that I had seen my GP in the last 3 years re alcohol misuse not dependency, I felt it better to be honest and say yes in case they wrote to my GP anyway. My answers to the DVLA Doctors questions will be the same as the DR1 form, so I don't expect the DVLA to have to go back to my GP again. I applied for my license renewal on the 15th October. DVLA wrote to my GP on the 1st November and it took them 8 weeks to reply. As I said above, it will have taken 18 weeks from initial application until the DVLA Doctors appointment which is Tuesday 19th. Given what you have said re timescales, it will probably be Monday or Tuesday of the following week (say the 27th,) before they make a decision and I am hoping that by the 28th they will have issued my new licence and I can start to drive from this date. I know that it was misuse and not dependency as when I did stop drinking, I had no withdrawal symptoms apart from some slight tremors for the first few days. In fact after 4 days I felt a hell of a lot better than I had done while I had been drinking. No more interrupted sleep. No more waking up in the morning with dry mouth etc. No more anxiety. I didn't have any seizures and have luckily never had hospital treatment for alcohol related problems. So here's hoping it won't be long now until I have the privelege of paying that hyper inflated insurance premium to be allowed to drive.
 
Mines took about 8 weeks, I'd went for the medical around the 18th of November and my licence came on the 18th or so in Jan, they said with Christmas and new years to take a week away, I think they try and have it sorted within 6 weeks at the latest.
 
Hi Luna, yes, Bacchus was a bit of a nickname as I always had one of those supermarket wine boxes on the go. Maybe the process is different between medically-declared alcohol-misuse (my GP informed DVLA) and the HRO process ? Perhaps, I just got lucky with a DVLA doctor who turned around her paperwork faster ?

Hope you see your licence on that website next week. Waiting on some of these agencies is aggravating.
 
Bacchus. DVLA Dr. was fine. She faxed the report to the DVLA while I was still there and I confirmed with them next day that they had received it. I pushed about timescales, but the people on the phone are the admin staff not the medical staff. She said that from the blood sample being returned it was currently taking a week for the medical team to review and approve or otherwise. I'll just keep bugging them next week and keep looking on the website.
 
Excellent news on the questionnaire. I didn't realise people still used FAX (mind you, DVLA is a Government agency so probably still using rubber stamps and ink-pads). It's been half-term this week so they probably have less staff - hence their additional delay.
 
Well, quick update on the licence situation. My CDT reading with the DVLA was 0.7%, exactly the same as Medichecks even though it was just over a week later. This would seem to be my 'natural or normal' CDT level.

Kept phoning DVLA after a few days and licence was eventually issued on the 5th March 2019, 2 weeks exactly after the DVLA Medical, so not to bad.

Although I had a 20 month ban, I applied for my licence return on the 22nd October 2018. So between my own GP taking their own sweet time in replying to the DVLA and then being given DVLA Dr's who were on holiday or unable to see me for weeks, it took 19 weeks for the entire process.

This meant an 'effective' 23 month driving ban.

So anyone starting off on this route, be warned.

My Car Insurance for the year is £738, (Admiral,) which is a jump from around £240 I paid 2 years ago.

It isn't as bad as I was expecting and will hopefully go down in the coming years when I re-build my no claims bonus.

To anyone worried about getting behind the wheel again, if you have been driving for a while, don't worry.

After about 15 minutes it felt as if I had never stopped driving, but I have been driving since 1983 so for new drivers it might be more of a concern.

Thankfully my immediate penance is over and I will never intentionally do anything to lose my driving licence again. In saying that, getting public transport, taxis and lifts wasn't too much of a hassle for the last 23 months, but the ability to simply get in your car and go for a drive is something I will not take for granted again.
 
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