The current MOT legislation is causing some confusion over black and white/silver registration plates. The date up to which these plates were permitted had become linked to the historic vehicle tax class; that is 40 years old. Thus currently, vehicles manufactured before 1 January 1976 are permitted to use black and white plates. However, this revision to the regulations has not yet reached the MoT Testers Manual where the cut-off date is still quoted as 1 January 1973.
The DVSA have said that the manual will be revised ASAP – but until it is, the MoT status of vehicles manufactured between 1 January 1973 and 1 January 1976 which are fitted with black and white plates will have to be established on a case-by-case basis. It may unfortunately be necessary on occasion to explain this to an individual tester.