Revised guidance on categorisation of defects

The DVSA has revised its guidance on how they categorise vehicle defects in roadside checks as of 20 April 2022.

The guide outlines the actions the DVSA take when roadworthiness defects are found during vehicle inspections.

The changed rules will be enforced from 1 May 2022. We understand that the DVSA will also publish the revised Enforcement Sanctions Policy at the same time.

What’s changed?

The following has changed:

• The categorisation of defects has been updated to include new items, notes and amendments in parts 1 and 2 of the manual.
• There are significant updates to the load security sections, which includes removing the reference to the load security matrix.
• There are additional load security defects and notes.
• Other updates include vehicles missing an obligatory seat belt, electronic stability control (ESC), suspension joints and overrun brakes.

The revised categorisation of defects document can be found here.

Changes to heavy vehicle Annual Test inspection manuals

The DVSA also published changes to the Annual Test inspection manuals for passenger service vehicles here and heavy goods vehicles here. The existing publications are still online and in use until 1 May 2022.

We are running an etraining session on 5 May 2022 on defect reporting and you can book on here.

Please contact our Regulatory team on 01254 828300 if you need any advice.