The number of over-70s holding a driving licence has exceeded five million for the first time, new figures show.
Press Association analysis of DVLA data reveals 265 Britons over the age of 100 hold a licence, with four people aged 106 the oldest licensed drivers.
There has been a 15% spike in centenarians with licences since October 2015.
Once people reach 70 they must declare whether or not they are fit to drive every three years, without having to take a driving or medical examination.
Concerns have been raised that some elderly people are continuing to drive when they are not fit to do so, while others may be giving up their cars too early and risk exclusion from services and activities.
Steve Gooding, director of motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, said: “Calls are routinely made for more testing of older drivers but most tend to have very good safety records and recognise their own limitations.
“However, with this huge demographic shift there will be challenges to maintaining safe mobility for all of us.
“Even where people are encouraged to hang up the keys for good in the interests of road safety, we must recognise the social and health problems that come with isolation.”
Out of the four key challenges ministers set out as part of their industrial strategy in November, one focuses on mobility and another on the ageing society.
The proportion of the UK population aged 90 and over has grown more rapidly than most younger age groups in recent years.
There were around 14,900 people aged at least 100 in 2016, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel