Road safety is vital for everyone. Whether we drive or cycle, catch the bus or walk, we are all affected by driving – and the policies surrounding it. How do we therefore decide whether people with long-term medical conditions should be offered driving licenses? This lecture will seek to answer this question for people who have had epileptic seizures.

It is unfair to say that people with seizures should not be allowed to drive at all, but most people would probably agree that a person who has had one seizure might be at higher risk of having another – possibly while driving. Everyone needs to be protected. So how long should we prevent a person who has had a seizure from driving? In this lecture, I will take the audience through the process of solving this question.

I will begin by encouraging the audience to deliberate an acceptable level of risk of an accident in the first year after passing a driving test. I will then prompt debate as to whether this level of risk should also apply to people with underlying medical conditions such as epilepsy. Next, I will outline in an accessible way, the statistical modelling required to calculate the risk of the event, and how these risks can be based on clinical characteristics. Ultimately, I will demonstrate how the risk estimates can be used to provide estimations of time off driving. I will also outline the required decision-making process that the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency must undertake, and highlight the challenges that regulators, clinicians, people with epilepsy, and the general public face as a result of the decisions made.