The Earl of Munsterasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will consider requiring the MoT roadworthiness certificate number to be written on the road tax form to enable the police to trace owners with fraudulent certificates.
The Earl of CaithnessWriting the MoT test certificate number on the vehicle excise licence would add to the total cost of licence renewal, particularly as the renewal dates and periods of validity of excise licences and testing certificates can differ. Writing the number on vehicle licence application forms would also involve additional costs, as would checking the numbers on that form and in making those numbers available to the police. In either case, the road safety gains are likely to be small. Each MoT test certificate has a serial number and it is therefore possible already to ascertain from the vehicle inspectorate whether it was stolen. Considerable measures are taken to combat theft. The vehicle inspectorate sets out minimum standards for the security of test certificates at MoT testing stations. Any testing station which falls below those standards may lose its authorisation to test. Loss and theft of certificates must be reported to the inspectorate, which reviews the security arrangements in that garage before supplying new certificates. The inspectorate co-operates with the police and trading standards officers in these matters and keeps the arrangements under constant review.