It is a legal requirement for cars being driven on our roads to hold a valid MOT certificate. However, a shocking number of motorists admit to having got behind the wheel without one, a new report has found.
A poll of 2,006 drivers found that almost a quarter (24 per cent) said they had driven a vehicle without a valid MOT in the past year.
This would equate to some 9.3 million motorists, if extrapolated across the UK driving population.
However, police issued fewer than 17,000 fines over the same period, suggesting that many drivers at the wheel of motors without valid MOTs are going uncaught and unpunished.
Some 24% of drivers polled by Halfords said they have driven their car on the road with an expired MOT certificate in the last 12 months. But its own investigation found that very few offenders have been punished for doing so
Annual tests have become one of the major motoring news stories of 2023 since the Government launched an MOT consultation in January as it considers extending the period between the roadworthiness checks.
Currently, all cars and vans have their first MOT when they reach their third year and are then – by law – required to be tested annually thereafter.
However, ministers are considering extending the initial check to a car’s fourth year and extending the requirement after this to every two years.
The controversial proposal has sparked MOT criticism from many motoring organisations, road safety groups and the wider garage industry.
Yet this new investigation by Halfords suggests that many drivers are already ignoring the current mandated MOT schedules – and not being punished when they do.
The poll found that some drivers admitted to using cars without MOTs for one-off journeys, many said they’ve done so habitually.
Those who admit they drove a vehicle without an MOT in the past year say they did so an average of 10.6 times – equating to a total of 99.2 million illegal journeys, the report said.
When a car’s MOT expires, this is automatically identified by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s database.
This information can be accessed by anybody with your number plate and could lead to prosecution.
With police equipped with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras in patrol cars, they can easily identify vehicles without a valid certificate.
You can be fined up to £1,000 for driving a car without a valid MOT.
If you drive a vehicle deemed ‘dangerous’ by an MOT test, you can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and receive three penalty points.
While motorists are unable to renew their vehicle excise duty (car tax) without a valid MOT certificate, many drivers could still have weeks or months remaining on their tax but the car’s MOT expired.
You can be fined up to £1,000 for driving a car without a valid MOT. If you drive a motor that has an existing ‘dangerous’ defect identified during an MOT test, you can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and receive three penalty points
Despite police having access to ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) technology that can help them to quickly identify if a vehicle is taxed, insurer and has a valid MOT, forces are catching only a small number of drivers without an in-date certificate.
In fact, just two police forces (West Yorkshire and Suffolk) issued more than 1,000 fines in the past 12 months.
For most it was far fewer.
For example, Dyfed-Powys Police and Nottingham Police forces issued just 50 fines each, whilst Northumbria Police issued just 20.
Some forces appear to not be prioritising MOT evasion, says Halfords.
Metropolitan Police and Merseyside Police – responsible for some of the largest cities in the UK – were unable to provide data on punishments regarding expired MOTs.
The Met stated that it ‘does not hold this information’.
Thirty-one of the 45 police forces across the UK responded to Halfords’ freedom of information request.
Between them they issued just 16,931 fines for MOT avoidance. This works out at an average of around 500 fines per police force.
This suggests that police caught around just 0.01 per cent of people making a journey in their car without an MOT – with 99.99 per cent getting away with breaking the law.
Eight of the 31 forces issued fewer than 150 fines and three issued fifty or fewer.
Halfords suggested that the Government takes driving without VED (car tax) more seriously than expired MOTs because fine revenues go to Treasury coffers
Halfords’ survey also found that drivers are more likely to risk getting behind the wheel without a valid MOT over not having tax or insurance – the main reason they say this is because they feel they are ‘less likely to be caught’ skipping their MOT (50 per cent).
Commenting on the investigation’s findings, Halfords CEO Graham Stapleton said: ‘The figures are worrying and a huge safety issue for all road users as MOTs are an important check into the road worthiness of vehicles.
‘ANPR cameras are meant to automatically catch those avoiding their MOT.
‘But with some forces catching as few as 20 people a year, it raises questions on how effectively this technology is deployed or if it is being used to target MOT avoidance at all.
‘It also raises the question of why the Government appears to be taking road tax collection more seriously than MOT avoidance.
‘MOTs directly relate to vehicle safety. Road tax does not, but does boost Government coffers in the form of tax revenue.
‘It could therefore be suggested that they are prioritising tax collection over safety – much of the public clearly believe this to be the case.’
Antony Kildare, CEO of road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, said he is surprised that not all police forces are taking the issue of driving without MOTs more seriously.
‘Joined up enforcement using all available databases was supposed to be common practice by now and they should be listening to UK motorists who are calling for them to catch more illegal drivers on our roads,’ he said.
‘It’s estimated someone is injured every 20 minutes on UK roads by an uninsured driver and that more than a quarter of motorists don’t even know when their vehicle’s next MOT is due, while there are around 630,000 unlicensed vehicles in the UK.
‘Getting lawbreakers off our roads would significantly reduce the number of casualties caused by the minority of motorists who have no regard for their motoring responsibilities.’
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