Overview

• Photocard licences expire at 70 and must be renewed every three years, with no upper age limit to driving under current rules.
• Failure to renew means you are not legally allowed to drive and your insurance may be invalidated, with penalties reported up to £1,000 for non-compliance.
• Renewal requires a self-assessment of medical fitness including meeting DVLA eyesight standards, such as reading a number plate at 20 metres and achieving at least 6/12 visual acuity.
• Higher-category entitlements such as C1 and D1 are suspended at renewal from age 70 unless drivers submit D2 and D4 medical forms and, in some cases, pass further tests, affecting vehicles like heavier motorhomes.
• The DVLA typically sends a D46P form 90 days before a 70th birthday, renewals are free online with delivery often in about a week, and ministers’ plans for mandatory eyesight checks have not yet taken effect.