Overview
- The consultation proposes mandatory eyesight testing every three years for licence holders from age 70 to confirm they meet legal vision standards.
- Ministers have set the plan within a new Road Safety Strategy that also seeks to lower England’s drink-drive limit to Scotland’s level and introduce penalty points for not wearing seatbelts.
- Government figures show nearly one in four drivers killed in 2024 were aged 70 or over, with a senior coroner warning that self-reporting of visual conditions is too easily abused.
- The Department for Transport indicates it may consider further fitness-to-drive measures in future, including cognitive assessments for older motorists.
- The AA and the Association of Optometrists back compulsory checks, while Age UK supports the aim but calls for pairing evidence from eye tests with raising the renewal age to 75.