GOV.UK propose new MOT notification service.
GOV.UK, the government information website, is in the final stages of developing a general notification platform – ‘GOV.UK Notify’ – which all government agencies and departments will be able to make use of.
This will enable any government department to ‘feed’ their data into the service, which will then in turn send out notifications to that department or agency’s subscribing ‘customers’.
The government blog gives the reason for the service as “Government receives millions of calls every year, from people anxious to find out where their thing is at. People have to spend time on hold, and running call centres costs a lot of money.”
“GOV.UK Notify is going to make it easy to keep people informed, by allowing service teams across government to send text messages, emails or letters to their users, before they get anxious enough to call.”
The government blog states that motorists who need to renew their MOT will be among the first to benefit from the service, along with those applying for lasting power of attorney, with notifications being sent out using “SMS, email or post”.
Although the service will be ‘free’ to the agencies or departments using the service, up to a certain level, it is not clear if a charge will be made to motorists subscribing to the MOT notification service – the end user.
We are trying to find out exactly how this service will benefit motorists and the effect it might have on the relationship between MOT Testing Stations and their customers and if, for example, motorists will be able to search a list of MOT Testing Stations in their area.
A similar government MOT reminder scheme which used to send out MOT reminders to motorists has been discontinued, we believe through lack of demand.
The service is expected to start rolling out to government departments “late February or early March”, and be rolled out to all government departments by “summer”. Presumably the public may be able to benefit from the system before the end of the year.