Driving and Diabetes

A lot of people who have diabetes hold a full driving licence and can carry on driving. In today’s post, we will explain everything that motorists need to know if they have diabetes.

Driving and Diabetes – Fine

A motorist can get up to £1000 fine if they don’t inform driver and vehicle licensing agency about their health changes that affect their driving.

It’s very important to know the driving law in the UK if motorists have diabetes. How diabetes can affect driving, there are two main things about diabetes that can affect motorist ability to drive safely:

1. If motorists treat their diabetes means they’re at risk of having a hypo where blood sugar level drops below 4mmol/l.
   Hypos can affect people who take certain medications to treat their diabetes, including insulin and medications like sulphonylureas.
2. If diabetes complications develop that makes it harder for motorists to drive for example problems with eyes – retinopathy or nerve damage – neuropathy.

Speak to your GP if you ’re not sure whether you are at risk of having these and what you can do to prevent them.

If these things affect then motorists need to know what the rules are and what they need to tell driver and vehicle licensing agency (DVLA) authority.

The driving and diabetes law and rules depend on what vehicle you drive. Here we’ll talk mainly about what motorists need to know if they want to drive a car or a motorbike.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency – DVLA in England, Wales and Scotland, and the Driver and Vehicle Agency – DVA in Northern Ireland are the authorities who impose these rules.

Remember, motorists need to know these rules if these things could affect them in the future if not now.

Motorists Who Hold Car Or Motorbike Licence

Motorists must inform driver and vehicle licensing agency if:

1. Their insulin medications go for or over 3 months.
2. Pregnancy-associated diabetes and insulin treatment is for or more than 3 months.
3. They get hypo – low blood sugar or GP told they are at risk of developing the hypo.

Non-insulin Injections or Treatement by Tablets

Motorists will need to check with their local GP/doctor if they are on tablets or non-insulin injections and if they need to tell this to the DVLA.

How to Report

Motorists can report their health condition to the DVLA online at gov.uk/diabetes-driving. Alternatively, the can fill out the DIAB1 form and post it to the DVLA.

We hope, readers have found this post useful. You can talk to a team of aDriving if you need any further information. We are also listed in