Only half of MOT testers assessed with 1 month before deadline

Roughly half of MOT testers have now completed their annual training and assessment, according to DVSA. But that means that around half still need to complete assessment with the clocking ticking ahead of the 31 March deadline.

Each year, Great Britain’s 65,000 MOT testers have to carry out training and assessment on set topics to make sure they are competent and safe to carry out MOTs. DVSA figures show that just under 26,000 testers still need to complete the training and assessment. Last year, 1,824 were suspended for failing to do so. This compares to 4,121 suspensions in 2021.

DVSA introduced annual training and assessment in 2016 as a programme of continuous improvement for testers. If suspended from testing, testers will need to complete all next year’s topics and take a demonstration test to be able to return to testing. This will lead to a delay while they are waiting to take a demonstration test. Currently there are delays and it can take several months before DVSA examiners are able to watch a demonstration test and get the tester back to testing.

Chris Price Head of MOT policy said: “Annual training and assessment is key to maintaining the high quality of the MOT test. Last year more testers than ever completed their training and assessment on time…

“We’re really pleased with the continued improvement year on year and I’d like to thank those testers for making the effort to ensure they stay at the top of their game.”

Testers need to do at least 3 hours of training each year and a total of 16 hours in 5 years. The pass mark for the multiple-choice assessment is 80 per cent.