MOT frequency to remain unchanged

The Government has dropped its plan to reduce the frequency of the annual MOT test. Announcing the decision, Transport Secretary Justine Greening said official figures 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Releasing hitherto unpublished data on whether the MOT test sector is complying with test standards.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.
Encouraging the take-up of industry codes of practice.
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.
Arranging ‘mystery shopper’ tests to help improve performance in addition to those already carried out by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency.