Debate contribution: MOT Test Waiting Times

Debate contribution by Mr John O'Dowd on 30 April 2024.

MLA: Mr John O'Dowd
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 30 April 2024
Type: Debate contribution (made as a minister)
Business: Ministerial Statements
Heading: MOT Test Waiting Times
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4486880

Text

First, to the best of my knowledge, it was not on the news this morning — for good or bad reasons — although I may be wrong. I can supply the Member with the legislation and ask my officials to give him the exact clause from that legislation, but it is my firm understanding, and that of my officials, that we have to change the legislation in order to introduce biennial testing. I am not sure what extra barriers I have put in the way since March. The Member may be referring to the budgetary and staffing constraints. As the Member knows, the Executive have published their Budget. I am working my way through it. I have to match my budget against the business plan moving forward. It is only sensible to do that. I expect that we will see a consultation on this matter in the late summer or early autumn, for a number of reasons, as I have outlined. I also want to engage with the insurance industry and PSNI on the options that are available, so that we present an informed consultation product, not only to MLAs but to the public and others, on what options are available and what their implications might be.
From 1 June, eligible private car owners of five-year-old and seven-year-old cars will receive temporary exemption certificates. Anyone who is eligible for exemption and goes on to the system to book will automatically be informed that they are not eligible for an MOT and are covered by this system. Once we see the roll-out of the 115,000 new appointment places for people, that will have an immediate impact. It will take the pressure off and lessen the anxiety of customers who, to date, have been finding it quite difficult to get an MOT appointment. As I said earlier, this is but one step on the journey. There are other steps, including the recruitment of examiners and the opening of new MOT centres. We will then move to our consultation and see where that journey takes us.
I hope that we will have TECs in place for around one year, but there are a number of moving elements to the story, with the question of when we can get Hydebank opened being one of them. Another is when we can get the consultation rolled out and get views back from it to inform how we then move to drafting legislation. The matter is being kept under review, and any changes will be notified to MLAs and the public in a timely manner. Releasing appointments earlier has been discussed previously. It is my understanding that doing that would only increase the backlog. We need to open up space in the system. Hopefully, today's announcement will do that.
As I have confirmed to the Member before, that may well be the case. The processes that we have in place with the PSNI and the insurance industry apply only to this jurisdiction. If motorists leave this jurisdiction without an MOT, they may be subject to prosecution elsewhere. That is why it is important that we introduce measures such as those that I have announced this morning. We need to free up more capacity in the booking system, and we have done that. The recruitment process has been quite successful. I expect that motorists will not be facing the same difficulties in the weeks and months ahead that they have been facing over the past period.
I have not personally engaged with the industry, but my officials have. The DVA engages with it regularly. As I said, the proposals will open up spaces in the booking system, which will allow private car owners and private car dealers to access more appointments. The proposals will therefore take the pressure off that industry as well.
Thank you for your question. I have had no indications at this stage of further delays to the Mallusk project. If, however, you have had any experience with building works, contracts and so on, you will know that projects can run into unexpected delays. At this stage, I am not aware of any.
Commercial vehicles are a different matter. It is important that annual MOTs continue for those vehicles because of the number of miles that they do in any given year.
I always listen to debates on DUP motions.
I may not always act on them, but I always listen. We have taken a significant step today towards reducing the backlog. For a six-year-old motor car to continue on the road, it will have to get an MOT. It will be MOT'd when it is four years old, it will not be MOT'd when it is five but will have to be MOT'd when it is six for road safety purposes and to —.
Not seven. What we have done there is to make sure that the vehicle is being regularly checked. Our decisions are based on road safety as well. We have to ensure that vehicles are roadworthy. All of us are drivers. I again emphasise that the responsibility for making sure that a car is roadworthy rests with the driver of that vehicle, whether they have an MOT certificate or not. A temporary exemption certificate does not give you an exemption from making sure that your car is roadworthy.
There has been no transfer of risk on this occasion. It has always been the case that the responsibility for the roadworthiness of a vehicle rests with the driver. My changing the MOT rules here and offering exemption certificates for five- and seven-year-old vehicles has not changed the responsibility of any driver, so there is no change there. I am sorry: I missed the last part of your question.
The information will be on the nidirect website. The DVA has tasked and spoken to its people who will be on the other end of the phone about that information, so information will be readily available to MLAs, councillors and citizens who are trying to engage on MOTs. There will be a social media programme as well. We will continue to monitor that, and if further information is required, we will make it available.
Anyone in possession of a TEC will be able to tax their vehicle because it is registered on our system. Roadside recovery operators will be able to work with anyone who has a TEC. A number of recovery companies are working in partnership with the DVA on an understanding of the previous situation and are responding to calls from motorists who may not have an MOT but have an MOT booked and are moving towards that. That situation has improved, but I would hope that introducing this measure will result in fewer people being in that situation.
They are operating at 100% capacity with the personnel they have to carry out inspections. As I noted, we have carried out a recruitment exercise. We have 47 new recruits, who will become vehicle examiners. That is significant. They will be posted out to centres where vacancies need to be filled. We are starting another recruitment process. Interestingly enough, we also recently recruited 15 new driving examiners. You will find that, on occasion, driving examiners double up as MOT examiners, so that may no longer be necessary. We are beginning to see an improvement in the recruitment of staff due to the recent wage increase as well. That rightly recognises the work that those team members do. The centres are operating at full capacity with the number of staff they have to operate with.
It does represent biennial testing. To put biennial testing on a legislative framework, we will have to change the law, if that is the will of the Assembly, after we carry out our consultation. If we were to get to that point, beyond consultation, that would be a sensible way forward. My main test of that will be around road safety. Yes, it is biennial, but, to move to a permanent position on that, we would need to change legislation.
Following on from Mr Chambers's comment, I will clarify: if a driver has an exemption certificate, they have an MOT, so they will be able to drive to Britain. There would be no question about that. In fairness, Mr Chambers put it in a different context. Mr Chambers was referring to the current situation locally where a driver may have an MOT booked and, if that driver is stopped by the police and the police are satisfied that the driver is doing everything in their power to achieve an MOT and that the car is roadworthy, they will not take action. The new situation that we will now have is that, if a driver has a temporary exemption certificate, they have an MOT; it will be registered in our system as the vehicle having its MOT. If that driver drives to Britain and is stopped, the system will show that they are legally compliant.

1,495 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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