Eateries are visited by food safety officers on the lookout for cockroaches, landlords must service properties to avoid gas leaks, and just ask any teacher you know about the rigours of Ofsted.
Optometrists and dispensing opticians are subject to continuous assessment on pain of erasure if they fail to amass the required tally of CET points. Revalidation is the modern way of life for all. But not drivers.
They skip out of the test centre, flinging their L plates in the air, safe in the knowledge they can drive, unchecked, unmonitored and unfettered for as long as they like.
A car has to pass its MOT to be deemed roadworthy but this week’s In Focus shows how a lack of compulsory eye exams for drivers is costing dozens of lives each year.
Of course, audits and inspections fill many with dread and stress. At best, a failed eye exam might demand the purchase of new spectacles or contact lenses, or at worse the loss of a driving licence. All require the driver to self-certify any surrender of their licence.
But would these same people, whose vision teeters on the edge, board a cable car last serviced 70 years ago, or simply venture to stay in a hotel without a single mention on TripAdviser?
These realities of an increasingly transparent world where no stone is left unturned make it all the more antagonising when lawmakers demonstrate a blindspot for drivers’ vision.
Nevertheless, with the return of dark evenings and Road Safety Week less than a month away, high street practices must take on the mantle and persuade drivers that the worst case scenario might arise from avoiding an eye test altogether.
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