In an unexpected statement from the Department for Transport, the government have conceded that the current frequency of MOT testing is appropriate to the UK’s needs and will be retained.
The statement, issued by Transport Minister Justine Greening said: "Having listened closely to the very many views put forward and considered the available evidence, I have decided that I am not going to carry out further work in relation to relaxing the first test date or the frequency of testing"
However, the MOT review will still go ahead. Ms Greening added that data from the DfT's executive agency VOSA suggested that because large parts of the MOT are 'subjective', some 12% of testers 'had their overall assessment of the vehicle’s roadworthiness challenged by VOSA'. This lead the Minister to announce a raft of new consumer measures which are to include some form of 'customer charter' for motorists when they visit garages.
While the suggestion of frequency change has been scrapped, it is still the government's intention to conduct a full review of the MOT scheme.
Key to the reversal of frequency change was the wealth of data and opinion given by various trade and road safety bodies. This was supported by environmental, and consumer groups as well as members of the general public.
The Key proposals announced by the Transport Minister are to:
• Retain the existing rules on MOT test frequency since the evidence shows that vehicle defects are being missed and roadworthiness mis-assessed.
• Shine a light on the performance of MOT testing stations by releasing hitherto unpublished VOSA survey data on whether the sector is complying with test standards. This is published today.
• Work with motoring organisations to find out what problems motorists experience and enable them to share examples of good customer service – in particular to find ways to make it easier for customers to give feedback on their experiences of garages in a way that others can see – potentially in the manner of existing online hotel and restaurant review websites.
• Encourage the take up of industry codes of practice – and expand them to include MOT testing – so that customers can find garages signed up to schemes delivering the highest standards and take action if they have not received the service they expect.
• Help motorists to spot “clocked” second hand vehicles, by changing MOT certificates so that they carry the last three years’ mileage information as well as the mileage on the day of the test, and encourage car buyers to check full MOT histories using the online MOT database.
• Arrange “mystery shopper” tests to help improve performance in addition to those already carried out by VOSA.