Just noticed this on the wall at my tyre/MOT place, new regulations dated October this year...



Which means also that the car will be flagged on the numberplate recognition system, too, as soon as you fail.

Which answers the old question about whether you can drive if your old MOT has not expired when you fail: you can't. It expires as soon as you fail.

I'm not sure what's "new" there apart from the maximum fine, ban and points? Unless the bit about being able to drive to *and from* a pre-arranged MOT test appointment has changed to only being allowed to drive to and *not* from?

But just because you fail an MOT doesn't make the car dangerous.

And even if it fails rendering the old MOT invalid, you can still drive it back home or to another garage since you are driving to "have the defects fixed"

BTW I can vouch for the efficacy of ANPR in picking up a car without an MOT, it takes just a minute or two to pick up a £100 fine at least

Indeed. But we have had many questions here in the past as to whether one could drive *in general* after a failure, if there was an outstanding MOT. This has now been answered.

For many people that will totally negate the point of getting a car tested earlier than the expiry of the existing MOT.

Hence potentially dangerous cars will be on the road for up to a month longer before any fault is discovered.

When I worked in the Police it used to take sometime for the information to update. DVLA was linked to PNC which could take 24hours to update. ANPR took data from PNC. Which could in some cases take up to a week. So Its not instant. So you can drive home and have at least 24hours before the Police would do anything.

I only found this out the other week when my Morgan failed on front brakes and handbrake at the local MOT station. A real PITA given the Morgan garage then picked up the car and found nothing wrong - £150 down the pan.

The "get out" is the statement:
You must not drive the vehicle on the road if it fails the test, even if the MOT hasn’t run out, except to:

have the failed defects fixed
a pre-arranged MOT test appointment.

This means that if your MOT has expired as long as you have booked one you can drive the car to the MOT station. Make sure you see the appointment written down including your registration plate. I once got stopped on the way to an MOT with an older car and the police followed me to the MOT station and checked. Once they found out I had a booking they were cool about it.
As to having the "failed defects fixed" this does mean you can drive the vehicle home if you want to fix it yourself. You do not have to take it to a commercial garage.
Again I asked the police about that and they said that was fine.
Over the years I have found it "better" to use an independent MOT station. I actually use the local council's where they check all the council vehicles. They are very honest, fair, and seem to have the experience to deal with older cars whatever the condition.

Quite.

I think that what they're clarifying is the assumption that you can still drive around as long as the old ticket is still valid - if you've failed, it's not.

If you test a month early you will still get a post-dated end (13 months maximum) if you pass, but in general what you no longer have is that month's grace to get things sorted out with a little more leisure.

And of course the old banger trick of getting an MOT every six months, so if it fails you can just move it on with six months remaining, is completely stopped.

Wow, I work at an MOT station and we were never made aware of this change!

We were looking at the DVLA database at work some time back and a colleague decided to check his wife's car. He was confused why the DVLA site was stating that her car had no MOT showing, so he called her. Her MOT had expired three months previous but she had forgotten to do it

We were both bemused why she had not been sent a penalty charge. The car had crossed the Dartford crossing several times and regularly passed through an area protected by an ANPR monitoring system.

So, lucky her. But it doesn't give much faith that the technology for spotting illegal cars is that reliable

The steering lock has also been included this year.

I generally take mine in before the expiry date.

And on occasion it/they fail. I drive home, invariably use it for a few days as well, get the work done or do it myself and go for a retest.

I am 'pretty' sure that, when the car fails prior to the current expiry date you will still see on the database that the common person can access from DVLA that the car will still be flagging the pre-existing validity date. I'm sure I checked the website for this when I last had a car fail - but I will check again for the next one.

Thats not to say, though, that the DVLA give additional data to the police/VOSA when a car is subject to a stop for other matters................ if you crash a car (even a no fault crash) with a pending MoT failure on it - say for inefficient brakes - I wouldnt give you much chance of success in a courtroom. !.

Also, MoT stations can give a failure notice (for a duff number plate lamp?), or if the car should really not be driven AT ALL,(a burst brake pipe) they will issue you with a red failure notice. (Not sure if THAT will overide a valid MoT certificate immediately??)

In regards to that last point, what's being brought up here is that any failure no matter what will override a valid certificate.

Doesn't the red failure notice prohibit you from even leaving the test station except on the back of a truck?

Yep.
And garages have no legal power to prevent the owner/driver from ignoring that fact, unfortunately.

Indeed. But they can call the local police as they leave...

Hmm with cutbacks to Police who no longer turn up for many crimes, I doubt you would get much response. A friend had a collision with a drunk driver, who hit him then drove off and rung police, "Sorry we have no cars available, can you turn up and present your documents at police station?"
And a few weeks ago I had a car heading towards me, on the wrong carriageway of a dual carriageway, called police to warn them... "Thank you for your report", I gave them his index number . "A few days later I got a call saying "He denied it, so there's nothing we can do"...

A mate was a traffic copper but Essex Police have decimated their traffic division and made them all local coppers...

I always thought it was OK to still drive the car if last year's MOT was still valid. Surely the still valid MOT is all that would come up if the police looked up your number plate?

It was never OK really to drive a car that failed even if last years MOT was valid (as your car at that point is technically not roadworthy), but the rules that have now come in place mean that a failure invalidates the remaining MOT time entirely.