An MHK’s call for the introduction of MoT-style tests for cars has failed to win support from the government minister in charge of the police.

Ralph Peake this week called for regular safety checks on vehicles.

The Douglas North MHK said: ’It is very important that they [cars] are in good condition. I do think it’s time we got an MoT check.’

He said he wanted regular roadworthiness checks to be a part of the vehicle licensing system.

In the House of Keys this week, Mr Peake asked the Minister of Home Affairs for the results of the police winter checks and what actions his department was considering to improve the situation.

He asked whether it would be ’better for motorists and safer for other road users to take a more proactive stance and ensure that regular maintenance checks of vehicles are carried out’.

Bill Malarkey said he presumed that Mr Peake was meaning MoT-style tests, such as those carried out annually in the UK on cars over three years old.

’We all hope that vehicle owners are responsible and will have their vehicles checked,’ he said.

Introducing MoT-style tests for vehicles in the island would not necessarily reduce the number of defects picked up by the police, he said.

Mr Malarkey, the politician responsible for the police, said that annual checks would not prevent minor defects such as broken light bulbs.

And he told MHKs that it was too early to give a definitive result on roadside checks as they are still being carried out. He said: ’To date there have been four operations, for which we have data for three of them.

’A total of 107 vehicles were stopped, for which 58 VDRS notices were for minor defects.

’In addition, one vehicle was seized and one fixed penalty notice was issued and 11 notices to provide evidence of insurance or driving licence have also been issued.’

Notices issued under the Vehicle Defect Rectification Scheme are for minor defects. It is optional.

Drivers are given seven days to rectify the faults identified and present their vehicle to police for inspection.

Mr Malarkey added that in regards to how to improve the standard of vehicles on Manx roads, it would ’depend on the final results of the campaign’.

He said: ’The whole idea of this campaign is we will collate the information at a later date and find out what the defects are.’

The minister added that while the figures ’sound quite high’, the defects could be minor ones such as a broken light bulb.

Mr Malarkey said: ’If a vehicle had been given an MoT last week, there is absolutely nothing to say that this week in the cold weather, that light bulb is going to go.

’So while this 58 here sounds quite high, I honestly don’t think an MoT is going to rectify them.’

Minister for Environment Food and Agriculture Geoffrey Boot raised the issue that the EU was currently looking at lowering the frequency of vehicle checks and that in places where annual checks have been dropped, there had been ’no increase’ in issues of roadworthiness.

And Education, Sport and Culture Minister Graham Cregeen noted that even when cars had passed an MoT in the UK, some have still failed the Manx roadworthiness test conducted when a car over three years old is imported into the island.

One of the benefits of the roadside checks, Mr Malarkey told the Keys, was that when the public become aware that officers were going to be conducting them, many people checked their cars and went out and buy, for example, new light bulbs.

They also get their vehicles serviced at a garage.

He added that if he’d had his car MoTed one week, he probably wouldn’t be checking it himself the next.

In an interview on Manx Radio, Mr Peake said a car could be like a lethal weapon.

’Not everybody realises what has to be covered and it’s really down to a qualified person to check,’ Mr Peake, who once worked as a mechanic for Mylchreest’s motors, said.

He said that if MoT tests were introduced, it need not be carried out by a government agency.

The work could be done by garage businesses in the private sector.

Mr Peake later asked the Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer what his department does to ensure that vehicles are fit for the roads.

The minister told him that first and foremost, it is the motorist’s responsibility to ensure their vehicle is roadworthy and that the DoI ’annually tests all passenger carrying vehicles and goods vehicles over 3,500kg.’