MOT frequency to remain unchanged

19th February 2012

The Government has dropped its plan to reduce the frequency of the annual MOT test.

Announcing the decision, Transport Secretary Justine Greening said official figuresMOT showed that more than one in four tested vehicles had defects that were missed by MOT centres or were wrongly assessed, and that the roadworthiness of one in eight was incorrectly assessed.She said that the Government would focus on the reliability and standards of garages instead.  Her proposals include:

  • Releasing hitherto unpublished data on whether the MOT test sector is complying with test standards.
  • Working with motoring organisations to find out what problems motorists experience and enable them to share examples of good customer service – potentially in the manner of online hotel and restaurant review websites.
  • Encouraging the take-up of industry codes of practice – and expanding 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.
  • Helping 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 to encourage buyers to check full MOT histories using the online MOT database.
  • Arranging ‘mystery shopper’ tests to help improve performance in addition to those already carried out by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency.

“I want each motorist to be confident that a visit to the garage ends with their car repaired to a high standard by reputable mechanics rather than uncertainty about cost and the quality of service,” the Transport Secretary said.  “Giving drivers the very best information about garage performance is key to achieving this goal.

“Responsible garages will be well placed to reap the commercial benefits of transparency.  Garages where performance is not up to scratch will find themselves under pressure to do more for their customers”.

 

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