Vehicle recalls and safety checks

Introduction

The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) carries out safety inspections at roadsides and special centres. If it finds breaches of regulations, such as overloading, it can penalise operators or even impound vehicles.

VOSA also manages the UK Safety Recall Scheme under the terms of the General Product Safety Regulations 2005. This ensures that vehicles with inherent defects due to their design and construction are properly registered and monitored, so that owners can return their vehicles and have the defects fixed. VOSA runs a vehicle safety recalls database, which operators can search to find out if safety recalls have been issued for any their vehicles.

This guide explains how you can make sure your vehicles are kept in a safe and roadworthy condition.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Driver and operator responsibilities for keeping vehicles safe and roadworthy
• Checking the vehicle safety recalls database
• Vehicle safety checks carried out by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency
• Penalties for failing Vehicle and Operator Services Agency vehicle safety tests

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