Belfast Live readers are overwhelmingly in favour of changing the frequency of MOT testing from one year to two.
Reducing required MOT testing for vehicles in Northern Ireland from every year to every two years is being considered by Stormont.
The Department for Infrastructure is currently seeking the views of the public around changing the frequency of MOT testing from one year to two years for some private cars, motorcycles and light goods vehicles.
It's estimated that moving to biennial testing for cars between four and 10 years old and light goods vehicles between three and 10 years old would remove approximately 253,000 (26%) of one million vehicles from the testing regime each year.
Under current regulations in NI, private cars and motorcycles are first MOT tested at 4 years old and light goods vehicles under 3,500kg are first tested at 3 years old. These requirements will remain unchanged, regardless of the outcome of the consultation.
The consultation is seeking input on the possibility of changing the testing frequency to once every two years, starting after the initial MOT test and builds on the evidence gathered by the 2021 Call for Evidence on the issue.
In a recent poll, conducted by Belfast Live, we gave you, our readers, the opportunity to have your say whether or not you support changing the frequency of MOT testing from one year to two?
The survey of over 1,000 of our readers found that the majority of you felt that modern vehicles are more reliable and safer on the roads with 1,034 in favour of the change.
Only 160 of you were against the move, feeling that it will lead to more unsafe vehicles on the road while nine said they didn't know.
Meanwhile, the DVA has confirmed that it conducted 101,818 vehicle tests in January 2025, of which 87,486 (85.9%) were full tests and 14,332 (14.9%) were retests.
The January 2025 figure is an increase of 5,066 (5.2%) vehicle tests compared with the total number conducted in January 2024 and represents the highest number of vehicle tests conducted in January since the series began.
For this financial year to date 2024/25 (April to January), DVA delivered 956,760 vehicle tests, 820,017 (85.7%) full tests and 136,743 (14.3%) retests respectively
The DVA received 94,864 applications for a full vehicle test during January 2025, relative to 113,699 for the same month in 2024.
The consultation will run for 12-weeks until April 16 and can be accessed via Citizen Space on the NI Direct website via this link or alternatively here.
Following the closure of the consultation, the feedback will be analysed, and a report will be presented to the Infrastructure Minister for consideration. Vehicle testing is a devolved matter, and so any move to biennial MOT testing would entail an Act of the NI Assembly.
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