The Deputy should note that I have now formally appointed all five members to the new Disabled Drivers Medical Board of Appeal (DDMBA) and appeal hearings recommenced in the first half of December 2023.
I appreciate that it took longer than anticipated to recruit a new Board. In this regard four Expression of Interest campaigns had to be run over 18 months to source the legislatively required five members. In addition, my officials also had to re-negotiate new hosting arrangements with the National Rehabilitation Hospital following their withdrawal of services in February 2023.
After the completion of preparatory work including developing working methods, determining clinical criteria for prioritising the waiting list and scheduling appeal hearings, the DDMBA recommenced the appeals process in December 2023. The Board members perform their assessments based on the medical criteria as set out in the Finance Act 2020, which are:
• be wholly or almost wholly without the use of both legs;
• be wholly without the use of one leg and almost wholly without the use of the other leg such that the applicant is severely restricted as to movement of the lower limbs;
• be without both hands or without both arms;
• be without one or both legs;
• be wholly or almost wholly without the use of both hands or arms and wholly or almost wholly without the use of one leg;
• have the medical condition of dwarfism and have serious difficulties of movement of the lower limbs.
The functions of the Board are set out in legislative requirements. They are legislatively required to be independent in their functions. To qualify for a Board Medical Certificate the appellant must be determined by the Board to have met one of the six criteria above.
The Secretary to the Board is established through administrative arrangements with the National Rehabilitation Hospital and is full time resource to the Board. While the appeals process was suspended due to the resignation of former members in November 2021, the Secretary continued to carry out administrative functions in respect of maintaining the waiting list and dealing with customer queries.
As of 27 March 2024 there are 793 appellants on the waiting list. 283 appellants have been assessed since the appeals process recommenced. The Board has prioritised the waiting list using clinically-based criteria. The DDMBA are working to address the backlog as quickly as possible.
