Written question asked by Julian Lewis (Conservative) on Tuesday, 14 March 2017, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 23 March 2017 (named day). It was answered by Andrew Jones (Conservative) on Thursday, 23 March 2017 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Motor Vehicles: Testing

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of MOT testing in ensuring that vehicles with unroadworthy tyres are not used on the public highway.

Answer: The MOT test is an effective tool for checking annually that vehicles meet minimum roadworthiness standards, including those applying to the condition of tyres. Of the around 27 million registered cars eligible for MOT, 7,789,251 class 3 and 4 vehicles (cars, vans and passenger vehicles with up to 12 seats) failed the MOT during the business year 2015/2016. A total of 599,772 (7.7%) of those test failures related to defective tyres. Identification of tyre-related defects at MOT prevented the cars to which they were fitted from being used on public roads with unroadworthy tyres.

Secondary information