The Institute of the Motor Industry is warning Gloucestershire MoT testing stations to get their paperwork in order – or risk a ban on their business.

The looming DVSA deadline affects 25,000 testers nationally who as yet have failed to sort and send off Annual Assessment documentation. Failing to do so spells a suspension of trading.

The Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) says it applauds the sector as a whole for prioritising the Annual Assessment for 2023, commending that the number of testers who've already complied is markedly better than the same time last year.

Steve Scofield, head of IMI's business development said: "Unlike many other industries, where Continuing Professional Development (CPD) might be a mere tick-box exercise, correct training and assessment of technicians is critical to the safety of motoring on UK roads.

"However, those MOT testers who fail to meet the deadline of March 31 will not be able to legally conduct any MOT work until their training and assessment has been completed. They will also lose the convenience of taking the Annual Assessment remotely. Instead they will have to competently demonstrate to a DVSA representative face-to-face, in their place of work, their ability to carry out an MOT assessment on a vehicle. 

"In short, failing to complete the assessment in time could have serious consequences both for garage income and road safety."

To offer assistance to MOT testers, the IMI says it is extending working hours on March 30-31 to an 8am start and 7pm close. To ease the administrative process, the IMI's has an MOT Training and Assessment package, offering a three-hour e-Learning training module.

Disqualifications of test stations have risen steadily in recent years, with the DVSA banning nearly 3.5 times the number of testers in 2020/21, compared to 2015/16. That equates to almost 700 MoT testers being disqualified in the last two years (2020/21 and 2021/22), which marks a rise of 49% compared to the previous two years.