Withdrawal of authority to do MOT Testing
The Agency responsible for controlling and monitoring the activities of MOT Testing Stations and their MOT Testers, the Driver and Vehicle Services Agency (DVSA) have announced that in future, if for disciplinary reasons, a Testing Station is withdrawn from the MOT Scheme because they have fallen foul of the Testing regulations, then that will in future be publicised. One assumes that this will appear on the DVSA website.
In fact, compared to the more than 21,000 MOT Testing Stations throughout the country, very few have their ‘authority’ to do MOTs withdrawn every year. In 2012/13 just 100 were withdrawn, 101 in 2011/12 only 101, and 89 in 2010/11. This was from a total number of Testing Stations of 21,663 in 2012/13 (0.46%), 21,039 in 2011/12 (0.48%) and 20,800 in 2010/11 (0.43%). These are very small percentages indeed.
If a Testing Station loses its right to do MOT Testing, it is usually for five years, although in some circumstances it may be less. There could be a number of reasons – repeated infringements of the MOT rules over a period of time, a single major infringement which threatened road safety, or perhaps outright dishonesty.
If it happens, and your car has an MOT issued by that Testing Station, it does not affect the validity of your MOT Certificate. For motorists who have had their certificates issued by that Testing Station however, they might wonder if, despite the validity of the Certificate, whether he MOT Test on their car was done properly.
Of course, that is unlikely to be something which can be readily discovered. If the problem stemmed from one seriously bad MOT, it may well have been a temporary aberration for which the company paid dear. On the other hand if it was due to systemically bad Testing, then questions may arise as to the quality of other Tests the company conducted. At this stage it is not known to what extent the circumstances of the withdrawal will be revealed by the DVSA when they ‘name and shame’ such businesses, or whether or not they would advise motorists with MOTs from that errant Test Station to consider having their vehicles checked again.