medicals

Who is allowed to do your medical

Book the wrong one and you have paid for a certificate your council will refuse. There is no national list of approved clinics, because councils do not even agree on who may carry the examination out.

There is no national register of approved taxi medical providers. Anyone showing you one has invented it. Some councils want your own GP, some accept any doctor who can see your records, and one does the medical itself. Check your council before you pay anybody.

Your council

Choose your council

Five systems, not one

Councils checked so far fall into five groups. Which one yours is in decides whether a high-street medical is any use to you at all.

01
Your own GP, and nobody else The strictest. Leicester and Salford word it this way.
02
Your own GP, or another doctor who has your records The commonest by far. Liverpool, Manchester, Wrexham, Kirklees and Knowsley all work like this. Knowsley are the bluntest: a questionnaire completed by a doctor without access to your records will be rejected.
03
Any GMC-registered doctor with access to your records The most open. Sefton allow your own GP, a GP at another practice, or any registered doctor who can see your full records. This is where a high-street medical genuinely works.
04
Only a firm the council names Your own GP is not accepted. Gedling name two individual doctors and nobody else. Halton allow your own practice or Just Health. Redditch restrict it to an approved panel. Broadland, Exeter and Havant each name commercial providers. West Suffolk go the other way and ban a firm by name.
05
The council does it themselves Birmingham's own occupational health department carries out every examination. You do not arrange it with a GP at all.

Already hold an HGV or PSV licence? Knowsley say you may not need a further medical at all, though your taxi licence is then issued to the DVLA dates. Buckinghamshire accept a PSV or HGV certificate too. Almost nobody advertises this, so it is worth asking your own council before you book and pay for one you may not need.

How long it stays valid

There is no national rule here at all, and this is where drivers lose money through nothing but timing.

Council	Window	Months
Solihull	Dated within one month, and valid for one month	1
Liverpool	Void if taken more than two months before the licence is granted	2
Ashfield	No earlier than three months before the appointment	3
Buckinghamshire	Issued within the previous three months	3
Leeds	Dated within the last four months	4
Sefton	Four months from signature, no refund if it lapses	4
Wolverhampton	Applications made within four months of the examination	4
Bradford	Dated within six months	6
Kirklees	Completed less than six months before you submit	6

Nearly standard, but not quite

Almost every council assesses you against the DVLA Group 2 standard, the same one as lorry and bus drivers. It is the closest thing to a national rule here — but it is not universal. East Staffordshire have adopted the Group 1 standard, the ordinary car-licence one. So even this cannot be assumed.

—
It is a Group 2 assessment, not a check-up Eyesight to a set standard, plus heart conditions, diabetes, epilepsy, sleep apnoea, mental health and anything affecting long periods at the wheel.
—
The DVLA D4 is the lorry and bus form Some councils accept it, some issue their own. Using the wrong form is a common reason for rejection, so get the form from your council first.
—
The ages are not standard, whatever you have been told Liverpool and Manchester repeat at 45, 50, 55, 60 and 65. Sefton skip 50 and 60. Birmingham use every five years or 45, whichever comes first. All of them go annual at 65.
—
You pay the doctor, not the council Which is why most councils publish no medical fee. It is not their charge to set.

Medical rules by licensing area

Every area checked so far has its own page, with who may carry out the medical, how often it repeats and the council’s own source.

AAberdeen Aberdeenshire Adur Amber Valley Angus Argyll and Bute Arun Ashfield Ashford

BBabergh Barnsley Barrow-in-Furness Basildon Basingstoke and Deane Bassetlaw Bath and North East Somerset Bedford Birmingham Blaby Blackburn with Darwen Blackpool Blaenau Gwent Bolsover Bolton Boston Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Bracknell Forest Bradford Braintree Breckland Brentwood Bridgend Brighton and Hove Bristol Broadland Bromsgrove Broxbourne Broxtowe Buckinghamshire Burnley Bury

CCaerphilly Calderdale Cambridge Cannock Chase Canterbury Cardiff Carmarthenshire Castle Point Central Bedfordshire Ceredigion Charnwood Chelmsford Cheltenham Cherwell Cheshire East Cheshire West and Chester Chesterfield Chichester Chorley Clackmannanshire Colchester Conwy Cornwall Cotswold Coventry Crawley Cumberland

DDacorum Darlington Dartford Denbighshire Derby Derbyshire Dales Dorset Dover Dudley Dumfries and Galloway Dundee Durham

EEast Ayrshire East Cambridgeshire East Devon East Dunbartonshire East Hampshire East Hertfordshire East Lindsey East Lothian East Renfrewshire East Riding of Yorkshire East Staffordshire East Suffolk Eastbourne Eastleigh Eden Edinburgh Elmbridge Epping Forest Epsom and Ewell Erewash Exeter

FFalkirk Fareham Fenland Fife Flintshire Folkestone and Hythe Forest of Dean Fylde

GGateshead Gedling Glasgow Gloucester Gosport Gravesham Great Yarmouth Guildford Gwynedd

HHalton Harborough Harlow Hart Hartlepool Hastings Havant Herefordshire, County of Hertsmere High Peak Highland Hinckley and Bosworth Horsham Hull Huntingdonshire Hyndburn

IInverclyde Isle of Anglesey Isle of Wight

KKing's Lynn and West Norfolk Kirklees Knowsley

LLancaster Leeds Leicester Lewes Lichfield Lincoln Liverpool London (TfL) Luton

MMaidstone Maldon Malvern Hills Manchester Mansfield Medway Melton Mendip Merthyr Tydfil Mid Devon Mid Suffolk Mid Sussex Middlesbrough Midlothian Milton Keynes Mole Valley Monmouthshire Moray

NNa h-Eileanan Siar Neath Port Talbot New Forest Newark and Sherwood Newcastle Newcastle-under-Lyme Newport North Ayrshire North Devon North East Derbyshire North East Lincolnshire North Hertfordshire North Kesteven North Lanarkshire North Norfolk North Northamptonshire North Somerset North Tyneside North Warwickshire North West Leicestershire North Yorkshire Northumberland Norwich Nottingham Nuneaton and Bedworth

OOadby and Wigston Oldham Orkney Islands Oxford

PPembrokeshire Pendle Perth and Kinross Peterborough Plymouth Portsmouth Powys Preston

RReading Redcar and Cleveland Redditch Reigate and Banstead Renfrewshire Rhondda Cynon Taf Ribble Valley Rochdale Rochford Rossendale Rother Rotherham Rugby Runnymede Rushcliffe Rushmoor Rutland

SSalford Sandwell Scottish Borders Sedgemoor Sefton Sevenoaks Sheffield Shetland Islands Shropshire Slough Solihull Somerset West and Taunton South Ayrshire South Cambridgeshire South Derbyshire South Hams South Holland South Kesteven South Lakeland South Lanarkshire South Norfolk South Oxfordshire South Ribble South Somerset South Tyneside Southend-on-Sea Spelthorne St Albans St. Helens Stafford Staffordshire Moorlands Stevenage Stirling Stockport Stockton-on-Tees Stoke-on-Trent Stratford-on-Avon Stroud Sunderland Surrey Heath Swale Swansea Swindon

TTameside Tamworth Tandridge Teignbridge Telford and Wrekin Tendring Test Valley Tewkesbury Thanet Three Rivers Thurrock Tonbridge and Malling Torbay Torfaen Torridge Trafford Tunbridge Wells

UUttlesford

VVale of Glamorgan Vale of White Horse

WWakefield Walsall Warrington Warwick Watford Waverley Wealden Welwyn Hatfield West Berkshire West Devon West Dunbartonshire West Lancashire West Lindsey West Lothian West Northamptonshire West Oxfordshire West Suffolk Wigan Winchester Windsor and Maidenhead Wirral Woking Wokingham Wolverhampton Worcester Worthing Wrexham Wychavon Wyre Wyre Forest

YYork

315 of the 318 licensing areas have been checked, with every sentence on this page traced back to the council's own form or page and confirmed to appear there. The rest are not here yet, and a council missing from this page means not checked, not "no medical needed". If your council's rules are wrong or missing, tell me and I will add them.

← All 318 licensing areas