The list of ocular conditions that drivers must declare has been reduced.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has reduced its list of notifiable ocular conditions that drivers must declare. The full list is now available on the GOV.UK website.
This follows the publication of an extended list in 2022, which contained several technical errors and included common ocular signs and conditions. This would have resulted in many drivers with otherwise normal eye health and good levels of vision making DVLA declarations. The College wrote to the Chair of the DVLA medical committee to raise our concerns to withdraw the guidance.
Speaking about the revised list, Daniel Hardiman-McCartney FCOptom said; “We are very happy to see the revised list has been published. The previous update could have resulted in considerable harm and confusion, so we are pleased our intervention helped result in a timely resolution. There now needs to be an apology from DVLA medical panel and a review to understand what went wrong and what measures can be put in place to ensure this cannot happen again. We along with other professional bodies continue to offer support to the DVLA to provide optometric and vision science expertise.”
A report on a survey carried out by the College and funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) indicates that optometrists have an important role to play in educating and informing older patients about their fitness to drive.