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Written question asked by Louise Ellman (Labour) on Monday, 22 February 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 25 February 2010. It was answered by Paul Clark (Labour) on Thursday, 25 February 2010 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Motor Vehicles: Testing

Question
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many vehicles failed an MOT test for incorrectly adjusted headlamps in the last five years.
Answer

The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) do not record this specific information and to find this information would result in disproportionate cost being incurred.VOSA publishes MOT failures by categories in its Effectiveness Report. Incorrectly adjusted headlamps would be recorded within the Lighting and Signalling category along with other related failures. Figures for the last three years are listed in the table.

Table A 3.2 Failures of vehicles which included a lighting and signalling defect as a percentage of vehicles tested at MOT stations
2008-09 2007-08 2006-07
Total tests 29,691,015 28,742,618 27,805,830
Class 1 and 2 motorcycles percentage of tests 8.9 8.9 8.7
Class 3 and 4: cars and light vans up to 3,000kg (percentage) 18.9 18.8 18.2
Class 5: Private passenger vehicles with more than 12 seats (percentage) 19.7 19.5 19.0
Class 7: Goods vehicles between3,000 and 3,500 kg gross vehicle weight (percentage) 43.1 43.6 42.3
Notes:
1. A failed vehicle for a lighting and signalling defect often has more than one failure item.
2. The percentage shows the percentage of the defect category against the total number of tests carried out.
3. Figures before 2006-07 are recorded in a different format.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
506 c668W; 318757
Session
2009-10
Subjects
Motor vehicles Testing
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk