Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the proposed one-year increase to the first date most road vehicles are MOT-tested on the safety of intensively used road vehicles.

The Department ran a consultation between 18 January and 22 March on the proposal to defer the date of a light vehicle’s first MOT from three to four years. The results of the consultation are currently being considered by ministers and a response will be issued in due course.

The impact assessment and its annex include a full consideration of the potential decrease in road safety due to more time and mileage passing before a vehicle’s first MOT under a one-year increase to the first date. The analysis found that the level of casualties involved in collisions caused by vehicle defects could increase by 1 - 4%, but this represents a much smaller magnitude when compared to overall collisions (around 0.01 - 0.05%). The published impact assessment also outlines assumptions and limitations of the analysis.