South West · driver medicals

Taxi driver medical in Plymouth

Which doctor Plymouth will accept, how often you have to repeat it and which form they want. Councils disagree with each other on every one of those, so this is Plymouth’s answer and nobody else’s.

Who can carry it out

Your own GP, or a doctor with your records

Your own practice is the straightforward route, but another doctor can do it if they have had full access to your medical history. Private clinics that request your records can qualify. One that examines you without them cannot.

What Plymouth requires

“Applicants for the grant of a drivers licence are required to satisfy the requirements of the DVSA Group II medical standard of fitness to drive, signed by their own GP or other suitably qualified medical practitioner. The medical certificate must have been issued within the three months preceding the date of application for a licence”
How long it lasts: 3 months. Policy: 'issued within the three months preceding the date of application'. Form: both the medical and the vision assessment must be signed 'no more than 3 months before the date the application is received by Plymouth City Council'
How often: on first application; then at 45, 50, 55, 60, 65 (i.e. every 5 years from 45 until 65); then annually from 70. The medical is due on the milestone birthday itself, NOT at licence renewal
Form: council's own
Their own sources disagree on this. GAP IN THE PUBLISHED LADDER: every council source stops the 5-yearly cycle at 65 and does not restart annual medicals until 70, so as written nothing is required between 65 and 70 - the policy, the form and the renewals page all say this the same way, so it is not a typo in one p Ring them before you book anything.

View official source ↗ ⚑ Report a change

Taken from Medical Examination Form - Application for a licence to drive Hackney Carriages or Private Hire Vehicles (council's own form, Jan 2024) - Notes and Guidance page 1. Rules change and councils rewrite their pages without notice, so confirm before you book and pay. If something here is wrong please say and I will check it against the council and fix it.

How Plymouth compares

Of the 315 UK licensing areas checked so far, Plymouth is one of 61 that will take another doctor provided they have had your full records.

Who may sign it elsewhere in South West

Neighbouring authorities do not follow each other on this, and a certificate accepted in one is regularly refused in the next. Check the area whose badge you actually hold.

Licensing area	Who can carry out the medical
Bristol	Any registered doctor with your records
Exeter	Only a provider the council names
Bath and North East Somerset	The council does not say
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	Your own GP only
Cornwall	Any registered doctor with your records
Dorset	Any registered doctor with your records
Gloucester	Any GMC-registered doctor
Swindon	Any registered doctor with your records
Torbay	Any registered doctor with your records
Tewkesbury	Any registered doctor with your records
North Somerset	Any GMC-registered doctor
Teignbridge	Any registered doctor with your records

What it costs to be licensed in Plymouth

The medical is one bill among several. See what Plymouth charges for the driver, vehicle and operator licences, taken from the same published sources.

Every line above is taken from Plymouth’s own published guidance and read by hand against that source. Nothing here is from trade press, a forum or an estimate. This is not medical or legal advice.

← Medical rules for every UK licensing area