Sample policy · Ambulance

Vehicle defect, MOT and roadworthiness policy (ambulance)

Statutory anchor: Road Traffic Act 1988 (vehicle roadworthiness and construction-and-use duties) and the Motor Vehicles (Tests) Regulations 1981 are the primary law for this policy. The engaged CQC duty is Regulation 12 (safe care and treatment), Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/2936), which this policy also operationalises through Regulation 15 (premises and equipment). · primary source

1. What the regulation says

The primary law for this policy is the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Motor Vehicles (Tests) Regulations 1981. The directly engaged CQC duty, quoted verbatim below, is Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, which makes vehicle and equipment safety part of safe care and treatment.

Care and treatment must be provided in a safe way for service users. (Reg 12(1) (the headline duty))

assessing the risks to the health and safety of service users of receiving the care or treatment, (Reg 12(2)(a) (risk assessment))

doing all that is reasonably practicable to mitigate any such risks, (Reg 12(2)(b) (risk mitigation))

ensuring that the equipment used by the service provider for providing care or treatment to a service user is safe for such use and is used in a safe way, (Reg 12(2)(e) (equipment safety))

where equipment or medicines are supplied by the service provider, ensuring that there are sufficient quantities of these to ensure the safety of service users and to meet their needs, (Reg 12(2)(f) (sufficient equipment + medicines supply))

Regulation 15 adds the premises-and-equipment duty that vehicle and clinical-equipment readiness supports:

All premises and equipment used by the service provider must be ... clean, secure, suitable for the purpose for which they are being used, properly used, properly maintained, and appropriately located for the purpose for which they are being used. (Reg 15(1): the six criteria)

The full text of the Road Traffic Act 1988 is at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/contents, the Motor Vehicles (Tests) Regulations 1981 at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1981/1694/contents, and Regulation 12 at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2936/regulation/12. Where this policy and the live source diverge, the live source wins.

2. Plain-English summary

Care and treatment must be provided in a safe way. The regulation lists the areas a provider must address, including risk assessment, risk mitigation, staff competence, safe premises, safe equipment, sufficient equipment and medicines, medicines safety, infection prevention and shared-care planning. Regulation 12 is central to CQC's safety expectations. For an ambulance service the vehicle itself, and the clinical and patient-handling equipment carried on it, are part of that safety duty, on top of the separate road-traffic law that requires the vehicle to be roadworthy, tested, taxed and insured.

3. Purpose

This policy sets out how the Service keeps ambulance vehicles roadworthy, records pre-shift checks, manages defects and tracks MOT, tax, insurance and patient-handling equipment.

The Service must verify this policy against current Road Traffic Act, MOT, DVSA and CQC source material before adoption. The policy is written for independent ambulance services providing planned transport, high-dependency transfer, event medical cover or private ambulance response.

4. Scope

This policy applies to:

This policy does not replace the manufacturer's instructions, MOT requirements, insurance terms, operator-licence duties or any vehicle-specific legal duty that applies to the Service.

5. Vehicle roadworthiness process

The Service keeps a live vehicle register and uses it to plan, check and evidence roadworthiness.

5.1 Vehicle register

The Fleet Lead maintains a register for each vehicle.

The register records:

The Fleet Lead checks the register before the Operations Manager allocates a vehicle to rota or standby duty.

5.2 Pre-shift defect check

Crew complete a pre-shift vehicle check before the vehicle leaves the operating base or starts standby duty.

The check covers:

Crew record the check against the vehicle, shift, date, time and checker. The platform records the check as an assurance task. Staff record an incident only when the check fails or a defect creates a patient-safety, staff-safety, public-safety or service-continuity risk.

5.3 Defect grading

The Service grades each defect before the vehicle is used.

Crew do not override a critical defect because a job is delayed or cover is thin. The Operations Manager arranges a replacement vehicle, subcontracted transport where approved or a safe rebooking route.

5.4 Defect repair and release back to service

The Fleet Lead keeps a repair record for each defect.

The record includes:

The vehicle returns to service only when the Fleet Lead or delegated competent person records that the defect has been corrected or controlled.

5.5 Clinical and patient-handling equipment

The Service treats clinical and patient-handling equipment as part of vehicle readiness.

Staff check that:

The Service does not dispatch a vehicle where essential clinical or patient-handling equipment is missing, damaged, out of service date or unsuitable for the planned patient group.

6. MOT, service, insurance and tax control

The Fleet Lead keeps expiry-date control for each statutory and service record.

The Service records:

The Service does not allocate a vehicle where MOT, insurance or tax evidence is missing, expired or uncertain. Staff use GOV.UK check routes and the Service's own records to verify the position before a vehicle is dispatched.

7. Response to an unfit vehicle dispatched

If Staff identify that a vehicle was dispatched while unfit for use, they record an incident immediately.

The Registered Manager or Fleet Lead:

The review checks whether the defect was visible during pre-shift check, whether records were complete and whether rota pressure affected the decision to dispatch.

The Service does not set a fixed DVSA reporting threshold in this template. The Fleet Lead checks current DVSA source material, insurance terms and commissioner terms before reporting or ruling out external notification.

8. Responsibilities

8.1 Training and competence

Crew must be trained and assessed as competent before completing vehicle checks without supervision. The assessment covers the vehicle class and conversion they use, the local check sequence, defect reporting, stop-use decisions and the patient-handling or clinical equipment carried on that vehicle.

The Service records:

Only the Fleet Lead or another person whose maintenance competence and authority have been recorded may assess a defect, authorise a repair or release a vehicle back to service. The training matrix must show who may check, assess, repair and release each vehicle type.

9. Recording requirements

The Service keeps the following records:

Records are kept in the Service governance records and are available for internal review, CQC review, commissioner review and external review where required.

10. Audit cadence

The Service uses the following Verivius default audit rhythm unless current DVSA, MOT, CQC, insurance, commissioner or local source material requires a different rhythm:

Audit findings are recorded as improvement actions with an owner and review date.

11. Version control and review date

The Service keeps a controlled copy of this policy. The footer or document-control table records:

12. Related policies and records

Review cadence: annual or on regulatory change, whichever sooner. Owner: Registered Manager.

13. Sources and further reading

This template is based on CQC's guidance for providers and managers, the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, and other topic-specific legislation and guidance listed below. It is a starting point for adaptation, not a substitute for legal, clinical, HR, safeguarding or specialist professional advice.

14. When to seek further advice

Seek specialist advice where the issue involves serious harm, safeguarding, deprivation of liberty, restraint, children, professional misconduct, controlled drugs, radiation, termination of pregnancy, infection outbreak, water safety, employment dismissal, DBS barring referral, or regulatory enforcement.

15. Document control

Version Date Author Changes
v1 2026-06-10 Verivius (sample) Conformed existing ambulance vehicle defect, MOT and roadworthiness policy to the Verivius policy standard. Added verbatim Reg 12 and Reg 15 quotes, plain-English summary, standard source stack and document control. Substance of the original sections preserved.
v1.1 2026-07-21 Verivius (sample) Added role-based roadworthiness competence controls and linked companion policies.

This sample policy template was issued by Verivius. It is a template, not a substitute for legal advice or the provider's own policy-development process. Where this template and live law or regulator guidance diverge, the live source wins.

What good looks like here

Written from an ex-CQC inspector's chair, but the point is safe, well-led care your team can stand behind. Each row shows what strong evidence looks like, what thin evidence looks like, and where the expectation comes from.

An ambulance patient is the one road user who cannot make their own judgement about the vehicle carrying them. They are often supine on a stretcher, restrained, unable to see the road ahead, in no position to brace for a heavy stop and unable to get themselves out of a vehicle that has failed on a dual carriageway. That is why a tail-lift outside its inspection date, a worn restraint anchorage or a brake fault carried through one more job is a clinical risk rather than a garage matter: the harm lands on someone already unwell enough to need transport. The point of a live vehicle register and an honest defect trail is that an operations manager can decline a job at six in the morning when cover is thin, instead of leaving a crew to judge under pressure whether a fault will hold for one more run. Good records show vehicles taken off the road and jobs rebooked. An unbroken run of clean checks usually means the checking stopped, not that the fleet is sound.

  1. A pre-shift vehicle check is recorded against the vehicle, shift, date, time and named checker, and a failed check raises an incident, not just a completed tick.

    Strong evidence: The pre-shift vehicle check the crew record against vehicle, shift, date, time and checker (lights, tyres, brakes, stretcher, tail-lift, oxygen and suction fixtures), logged by the platform as an assurance task with an incident only where the check fails or a defect creates risk.

    Weak evidence: A check book where every line is ticked, in the same pen, with no comment box ever used, and not one failed check across months of shifts: that pattern tells you the sheet is a signature, not an inspection. The same pattern shows in checks timed after the vehicle had already left base, a checker recorded only as "crew" or "day shift" rather than a named person, and a workshop invoice for a fault that appears nowhere in the check records.

    Our recommended baseline. Not a legal or regulatory requirement, but a sensible standard we suggest where the rules leave the detail to you. Adapt it to your service.

  2. A critical defect takes the vehicle out of service immediately, so no patient travels in it, rather than keeping it on the road because cover was thin.

    Strong evidence: The defect grading record: a critical defect removes the vehicle from service immediately until the Fleet Lead confirms repair and release, and the policy bars crew from overriding a critical defect because a job is delayed.

    Weak evidence: A brake warning light or tyre fault logged in the morning and the same registration sitting on the rota that afternoon, with the removed-from-service field blank. Weak too: a critical defect quietly regraded as major with no reason recorded and no name against the decision, or a grading timestamp that lands after the job was already completed, which means the call was made on the road and written up afterwards to fit.

    A legal duty. This comes from legislation that applies to your service, so meeting it is not optional. The exact provision is cited beneath the badge.

    Road Traffic Act 1988 s.40A (using a vehicle in a dangerous condition); Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 reg 100(1); Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 reg 5(1)

  3. Each defect has a repair record with a named person authorising release, so the next crew knows the vehicle is genuinely fixed, not quietly back in use.

    Strong evidence: The repair record (defect description, whether removed from service, repair provider, repair completion evidence and the person who authorised release back to service).

    Weak evidence: A garage invoice filed as though it were the repair record, reading "fixed" or "serviced" with nothing describing which of the three reported faults was actually corrected. Weak evidence also looks like a blank release-back-to-service line, or a release signed by whoever happened to be in the office rather than the Fleet Lead or a named delegated competent person, and an unexplained gap between the repair date and the date the vehicle carried its next patient.

    Our recommended baseline. Not a legal or regulatory requirement, but a sensible standard we suggest where the rules leave the detail to you. Adapt it to your service.

  4. The MOT (roadworthiness test), insurance and tax are verified current before the vehicle is allocated, not dispatched on missing, expired or uncertain evidence.

    Strong evidence: The MOT, service, insurance and tax control record (MOT expiry date and certificate, insurance certificate and renewal date, vehicle excise duty status), verified through GOV.UK check routes and the Service's own records before allocation.

    Weak evidence: A folder of certificate scans with no expiry-date control, so nobody can say which vehicle falls out of test cover next month without opening every file, and no record of which test regime each vehicle class actually sits under. The clearest tell is sequencing: the vehicle is allocated first and the GOV.UK check is pulled afterwards when someone asks. Hired, leased and loaned replacement vehicles missing from the register altogether, or an insurance renewal tracked only in one manager's personal calendar, are the same weakness.

    A legal duty. This comes from legislation that applies to your service, so meeting it is not optional. The exact provision is cited beneath the badge.

    Road Traffic Act 1988 s.47(1) (obligatory test certificate) and s.143 (third-party insurance); Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 s.29 (using or keeping an unlicensed vehicle)

  5. Patient-handling equipment is in service date and matched to the person being carried, not merely present on the vehicle.

    Strong evidence: The clinical and patient-handling equipment checks (stretchers, carry chairs, ramps and tail-lifts within service date, restraints clean, complete and functional, bariatric equipment where the job requires it), with the policy barring dispatch where essential equipment is missing, out of service date or unsuitable.

    Weak evidence: A stretcher, carry chair or ramp listed on the vehicle inventory with no service date beside it, and tail-lift thorough-examination certificates held by the leasing company that the Service has never seen. Restraints ticked as "present" with nobody looking at webbing wear or the manufacturer's inspection schedule is box-ticking. On patient match, watch for bariatric capacity assumed from the booking rather than confirmed against the equipment's stated safe working load, and no record anywhere of a job stood down because the equipment did not suit the person.

    A legal duty. This comes from legislation that applies to your service, so meeting it is not optional. The exact provision is cited beneath the badge.

    Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 reg 9(3)(a) (thorough examination at least every 6 months for lifting equipment for lifting persons), reg 4 and reg 7 (safe working load); Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 reg 4(1) (suitability)

  6. An unfit vehicle reaching the road is opened as an incident and root-caused, not written off as a one-off.

    Strong evidence: The unfit-vehicle-dispatched incident record and review, which tests whether the defect was visible at the pre-shift check and whether rota pressure drove the decision. It considers separately whether the Regulation 20 duty of candour is owed, which is a duty owed to the person affected and is not a notification, and whether external notification advice (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), insurer, commissioner, CQC) is needed.

    Weak evidence: No incident at all, because the crew solved it by swapping vehicles and got the patient there, so the near miss never reached the register. Where an incident does exist, weak evidence is a closure line reading "crew reminded to complete checks" with no test of whether the defect was visible at the pre-shift check and no honest look at whether the rota left any spare vehicle. Also thin: nothing recorded about the effect on the person being transported, no reasoning on whether the Regulation 20 duty of candour threshold was reached, and the same registration appearing in three reports across the year with no pattern review.

    What the regulator expects to see. Not a law in itself, but CQC judges you against it, so an inspector will look for it and expect a reason where you depart from it.

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Last verified 20 July 2026

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Last reviewed 21 July 2026