Older motorists will gain five years on their normal driving licence under plans to reform road safety on the 80th anniversary of the driving test.
Drivers will soon only have to renew their licence when they reach 75, rather than 70, under Department for Transport proposals designed to ease the burden on a creaking Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
The initiative is part of a “roads revolution” that includes boosting the driving test pass rate to above 50 per cent, adapting laws to reflect an expected increase in the number of driverless cars, and carrying out a trial on a test that asks learner drivers to follow sat-nav directions for 20 minutes.
Currently motorists can only remain on the road over the age of 70 if they declare themselves fit in that year and every three years after that, including confirming that they can still read a number plate at 65ft (20m). However, the number of motorists aged over 70 is now more than four million, leading to concerns that the DVLA cannot cope with the paperwork.
Over the past decade the number of drivers the DVLA medically assesses a year has jumped by more than 50 per cent, from under 500,000 to 750,000. The agency dealt with 1.4 million items of “medical mail” in 2014.
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Raising the compulsory licence renewal age will be controversial. Last year the RAC and the Transport Research Laboratory found that 10 per cent of Britain’s four million drivers aged over 70 were not fit to be behind the wheel. Yet other studies show that older people were less likely to cause accidents than 17 to 24-year-olds.
Last year, road safety charities criticised a previous DfT proposal to raise the declaration age to 80. Officials appear to have met them halfway with their new proposal to raise the age at which older drivers can declare themselves fit by five years. The Independent on Sunday obtained a draft of the DfT consultation document, which will be published in October. Its proposals include part-privatising the driving test.
“We will consider how we might meet continued strong customer demand for the practical driving test, through exploring partnerships with other organisations,” the consultation reportedly states. Paul Williams, from the Public and Commercial Services Union, said that this would cause uproar and fury among his members.
Other proposed reforms include closing test centres, cutting jobs at motoring agencies and introducing more flexible driving test slots with evening and weekend appointments.
The DfT consultation document points out how rapidly vehicle technology has changed since the introduction of the driving test in 1935. “In the 130 years since Karl Benz built the first modern motor car there has been continuous and accelerated development of automotive technology,” it said. “Such development will doubtless continue, with the prospect of driverless cars now a real possibility.”
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A spokesman for the DfT said: “We are currently considering options for developing the motoring services agencies and will consult later in the year.”