Doctors are now charging patients up to £62.50 to fill in a single DVLA medical form, after the first change to the official fee benchmark in 14 years pushed practice prices sharply higher. For drivers over 70 declaring a health condition, or lorry and bus drivers renewing a Group 2 licence, the paperwork that keeps them legally on the road now comes with a bill that did not exist at this level a year ago.
A 56 percent jump agreed behind closed doors
The British Medical Association and the DVLA struck a new deal on the fees paid for driving licence medical questionnaires, ending a rate that had stood unchanged for 14 years. Under the agreement, the harmonised rate for GPs and consultants completing the standard DVLA medical questionnaire rose to £50 from 1 January 2026, then to £62.50 from 1 April. The previous rate was £40 for GPs and £42 for consultants, a figure fixed back in 2012 and never reviewed until now.
BMA professional fees committee chair Rob Barnett said the old rate was “no longer economic” and had fallen badly behind inflation over 14 years. Future rises are now locked in too: from April 2027 and 2028, the fee will rise again in line with the consumer price index, capped at 5 percent a year, with a review promised if inflation runs hotter than that.
The £62.50 figure applies to the fee the DVLA itself pays a doctor when it directly commissions a report under Section 88 of the Road Traffic Act, usually when the agency is reviewing a driver’s fitness after a medical condition has been flagged. But it has a knock-on effect that patients feel directly in their pocket.
Read HERE
A 56 percent jump agreed behind closed doors
The British Medical Association and the DVLA struck a new deal on the fees paid for driving licence medical questionnaires, ending a rate that had stood unchanged for 14 years. Under the agreement, the harmonised rate for GPs and consultants completing the standard DVLA medical questionnaire rose to £50 from 1 January 2026, then to £62.50 from 1 April. The previous rate was £40 for GPs and £42 for consultants, a figure fixed back in 2012 and never reviewed until now.
BMA professional fees committee chair Rob Barnett said the old rate was “no longer economic” and had fallen badly behind inflation over 14 years. Future rises are now locked in too: from April 2027 and 2028, the fee will rise again in line with the consumer price index, capped at 5 percent a year, with a review promised if inflation runs hotter than that.
The £62.50 figure applies to the fee the DVLA itself pays a doctor when it directly commissions a report under Section 88 of the Road Traffic Act, usually when the agency is reviewing a driver’s fitness after a medical condition has been flagged. But it has a knock-on effect that patients feel directly in their pocket.
Read HERE
