Vehicle inspection data show the scale and outcomes of roadworthiness testing, but the measures depend on the population and inspection system. In Great Britain, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) recorded 35,229,047 MOT tests in financial year 2024 to 2025, while U.S. commercial roadside inspections measure a different system and should not be combined with MOT results.
Key Vehicle Inspection Statistics
The most useful headline figures cover volume, outcomes, vehicle classes, defects and inspection capacity:
- 35,229,047 MOT tests were recorded in Great Britain in financial year 2024 to 2025.
- The initial MOT fail rate was 27.90% in Great Britain in financial year 2024 to 2025.
- The final MOT fail rate was 22.44% in Great Britain in financial year 2024 to 2025.
- 1,924,120 Great Britain MOT tests passed after rectification at the station in financial year 2024 to 2025.
- 7,903,963 Great Britain MOT tests were recorded as failures in financial year 2024 to 2025.
- 2,701,470 Great Britain MOT tests failed with at least one dangerous item in financial year 2024 to 2025.
- 999,625 motorcycle class 1 and 2 tests were recorded in Great Britain in financial year 2024 to 2025.
- 33,128,617 class 3 and 4 tests covered cars, vans and passenger vehicles with up to 12 seats in Great Britain in financial year 2024 to 2025.
- Class 7 goods vehicles recorded 1,059,382 tests in Great Britain in financial year 2024 to 2025.
- The highest listed class-level initial fail rate was 35.31% for class 7 goods vehicles in Great Britain in financial year 2024 to 2025.
- Quarterly MOT volume reached 9,471,607 tests in Great Britain from January to March 2025.
- The highest quarterly initial fail rate was 28.88% in Great Britain from October to December 2024.
- Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment appeared in 10.89% of class 3 and 4 tests in Great Britain in financial year 2024 to 2025.
- Brakes represented 16.15% of class 3 and 4 defects in Great Britain in financial year 2024 to 2025.
- Great Britain had 23,097 private MOT stations in financial year 2024 to 2025.
- Great Britain had 66,423 nominated MOT testers in financial year 2024 to 2025.
- DVSA disqualified 307 MOT testers in Great Britain in financial year 2024 to 2025.
Contents
- Annual MOT testing scale and pass rates
- Vehicle class trends
- Quarterly MOT data
- Dangerous and non-dangerous failures
- Car and light-van defect categories
- Inspection capacity and enforcement
- MOT and U.S. commercial roadside inspections
Annual Vehicle Inspection Statistics: MOT Scale and Pass Rates
The DVSA’s “MOT test results by class of vehicle” table reports Great Britain’s annual MOT activity for financial year 2024 to 2025. It covers initial tests and excludes abandoned, aborted and retest records.
| Measure | Great Britain, 2024–2025 |
|---|---|
| MOT tests | 35,229,047 |
| Tests passing after rectification | 1,924,120 |
| Published failures | 7,903,963 |
| Initial fail rate | 27.90% |
| Final fail rate | 22.44% |
| Tests with at least one dangerous item | 2,701,470 |
| Tests failing without a dangerous item | 7,126,613 |
Source: MOT test results by class of vehicle.
The initial fail rate is the as-presented rate for the initial test. The final rate excludes vehicles that pass after minor-defect rectification at the test station, so the two percentages answer different questions rather than describing a single unchanged denominator.
Tests with at least one dangerous item represented a 7.67% initial fail rate. The dangerous-item classification is a DVSA test-result field, while the non-dangerous failure count is reported separately.
Vehicle Inspection Trends by Class
Vehicle class changes the population being measured. Motorcycles, ordinary cars and vans, larger passenger vehicles and goods vehicles therefore have different test volumes and fail rates.
| DVSA class | Population | Tests | Initial fail rate | Final fail rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 and 2 | Motorcycles | 999,625 | 14.00% | 8.53% |
| 3 and 4 | Cars, vans and passenger vehicles up to 12 seats | 33,128,617 | 28.08% | 22.67% |
| 5 | Private passenger vehicles over 12 seats | 41,423 | 26.22% | — |
| 7 | Goods vehicles from 3,000 to 3,500 kg | 1,059,382 | 35.31% | — |
Source: MOT test results by class of vehicle.
Class 3 and 4 vehicles dominate the annual test population, with 33,128,617 tests. Their 28.08% initial fail rate was materially higher than the 14.00% recorded for motorcycle classes 1 and 2.
Class 7 had the highest initial fail rate among the listed classes at 35.31%. Its definition is specific: goods vehicles with a gross vehicle weight from 3,000 to 3,500 kilograms, rather than all commercial vehicles.
Quarterly Vehicle Inspection Data in Great Britain
The quarterly series uses April–June, July–September, October–December and January–March periods within financial year 2024 to 2025.
| Period | MOT tests | Initial fail rate |
|---|---|---|
| April–June 2024 | 7,883,681 | 27.47% |
| July–September 2024 | 9,212,266 | 27.52% |
| October–December 2024 | 8,661,488 | 28.88% |
| January–March 2025 | 9,471,607 | 27.73% |
Source: MOT test results by class of vehicle.
The largest quarterly volume in this series was 9,471,607 tests from January to March 2025. The highest quarterly initial fail rate was 28.88% from October to December 2024, while the other three quarters ranged from 27.47% to 27.73%.
These observations describe the reported quarterly pattern; they do not establish why volume or failure rates changed. The periods are administrative reporting quarters, not a seasonally adjusted time series.
Vehicle Inspection Failures: Dangerous and Non-Dangerous Defects
The DVSA data separate tests with at least one dangerous item from tests failing without a dangerous item. A single failed test can contain multiple failure items, so test shares and defect shares must remain separate.
For class 3 and 4 vehicles, 2,551,781 tests had at least one dangerous item in financial year 2024 to 2025, corresponding to a 7.70% initial fail rate for that subgroup. The same class recorded 6,751,481 failures without a dangerous item.
Class 7 shows a different split in the reported subgroup rates: the initial fail rate was 9.74% for tests with at least one dangerous item and 25.56% for tests with no dangerous item. For class 5, 2,647 tests had at least one dangerous item, while the initial fail rate for tests with no dangerous item was 19.83%.
Source: MOT test results by class of vehicle.
The subgroup percentages should not be added together or read as the share of all failures. They use the DVSA’s published dangerous-item and non-dangerous-item fields, with class-specific populations.
Car and Light-Van Inspection Statistics by Defect Category
The DVSA’s class 3 and 4 defect table describes both the share of tests containing a category and the category’s share of all defects. Because one failed test can contain multiple failure items, those denominators are not interchangeable.
| Defect category or subset | Share of tests | Share of relevant defects |
|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 10.89% | 25.01% of defects |
| Brakes | 6.63% | 16.15% of defects |
| Body, chassis and structure | 3.41% | 6.34% of defects |
| Brakes, dangerous subset | 2.58% | 29.01% of dangerous defects |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment, major subset | 10.81% | 29.50% of major defects |
Source: MOT class 3 and 4 vehicles: initial failures by defect category.
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment appeared in 10.89% of class 3 and 4 tests and made up 25.01% of defects. Brakes appeared in 6.63% of tests and represented 16.15% of defects.
The category table also records a quarter-specific measure: noise, emissions and leaks appeared in 3.10% of class 3 and 4 tests from January to March 2025. That value should not be treated as an annual rate.
Dangerous and major subsets provide a narrower view. Brakes accounted for 2.58% of class 3 and 4 tests as dangerous defects and 29.01% of dangerous defects, while lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment appeared as major defects in 10.81% of tests and represented 29.50% of major defects.
Vehicle Inspection Capacity, Testers and Enforcement
Inspection outcomes depend on the network that performs the tests. In Great Britain, the DVSA reported 23,097 private MOT stations and 219 other MOT stations in financial year 2024 to 2025, alongside 66,423 nominated MOT testers.
Source: MOT test stations and testers.
The same financial-year context includes enforcement counts against authorised examiners and testers:
- DVSA recorded 155 authorised-examiner withdrawals in Great Britain in 2024 to 2025; this is an enforcement-action count and not necessarily a count of unique stations.
- DVSA recorded 264 authorised-examiner warnings in Great Britain in 2024 to 2025.
- DVSA disqualified 307 MOT testers in Great Britain in 2024 to 2025.
- DVSA recorded 3 authorised-examiner refusals after appeal in Great Britain in 2024 to 2025.
Source: Action against authorised examiners and testers.
The station, tester and enforcement rows are financial-year counts. The DVSA MOT dataset is administrative data and is explicitly described on the source page as not classed as an official statistic under UK Statistics Authority scrutiny.
MOT Statistics and U.S. Commercial Roadside Inspections
Great Britain’s MOT is a periodic roadworthiness test. The U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and state partners report a different population and operating model: commercial-motor-vehicle roadside inspections.
FMCSA and its state partners conducted 3,030,397 commercial-motor-vehicle inspections in U.S. fiscal year 2023. This figure is not comparable with Great Britain’s MOT total because the vehicle population, inspection setting, rules and denominator differ.
Source: FY2025 Annual Performance Plan and Report: FY2023.
The comparison is useful as a definition check: “vehicle inspection” can refer to periodic testing of vehicles in a national MOT system or roadside enforcement inspections of commercial vehicles. Any trend, participation or outcome comparison should identify the geography, vehicle population, period and inspection type first.