Policies for Garages and the Motor Trade

This page is for independent garages, MOT testing stations and dealers that need their documentation in order for DVSA, the FCA, trading standards and the workshop floor. Policy Pros writes bespoke quality management, consumer and health and safety documents for the UK motor trade.

Bespoke, audit-ready policies from £65 + VAT per document. Get a quote or call 020 3951 2875 for a free scoping conversation.

Policies Garages and Motor Traders Need

Legally or Scheme Required

• MOT Quality Management System - authorised examiners must run a quality system covering people, training, procedures, equipment, assurance and improvement, with documented quality control checks
• Tester Training Records - at least 3 hours of recorded annual training per test group plus the annual assessment by 31 March, with records kept 5 years and calibration records kept 2 years
• FCA Credit Broking Documentation - authorisation, financial promotions sign-off and commission disclosure wherever finance is offered on vehicles
• Waste Duty of Care Documents - transfer notes kept 2 years, and hazardous waste consignment notes kept 3 years for oils, batteries, solvents and brake fluid
• Health and Safety Policy Statement - required in writing with 5 or more employees

Expected by DVSA, Insurers and Customers

• Written MOT Site Policies - DVSA expects documented processes, including testing friends' and family vehicles, complaints, and handling failures against testing standards
• EV and Hybrid High-Voltage Procedures - competence tiers, isolation procedures and orange-cable awareness before anyone cuts or welds
• Estimates and Service Terms - what you say at the service desk becomes a contract term under the Consumer Rights Act
• Complaints Procedure - the backbone of Motor Ombudsman code compliance and FCA expectations alike
• Workshop Risk Assessments - vehicle lifts, tyre inflation, hot work and isocyanate paint spraying, the trade's leading occupational asthma cause

DVSA Runs Your MOT Bay on Documents

The DVSA's guidance for MOT centres is explicit: authorised examiners are responsible for testing quality and must operate a quality management system, evidenced by quality control checks on at least one test per tester every two months, carried out by a competent person, with corrections and training needs documented.

Site reviews run at least every three years against a monthly-refreshed risk rating, and 2026 tightened the screws: the disciplinary points list expanded in July, and the quality control wording was strengthened the same month. A tester without the annual training and assessment recorded by 31 March is suspended from testing, so the training log is not admin, it is capacity.

Selling Finance Makes You an FCA Firm

A garage or dealer introducing customers to finance is credit broking and needs FCA authorisation, usually under the limited permission regime where broking is secondary to vehicle sales. That brings documentation with it: financial promotions that make clear you are a broker, disclosure of fees and commission, and evidence of good customer outcomes under the Consumer Duty.

The motor finance redress scheme confirmed in March 2026 lands mainly on lenders, but its lesson lands on every showroom: undisclosed commission arrangements created a multi-billion-pound liability. Commission disclosure wording and finance sales procedures are now baseline documents for any dealer offering finance.

The Service Desk Is a Contract

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, services must be performed with reasonable care and skill, and anything said or written to the customer about the work can become a binding term. An estimate given casually at the counter shapes what a reasonable price is, which is why estimate, authorisation and variation procedures earn their keep.

The Motor Ombudsman's service and repair and vehicle sales codes, approved by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, set the sector's fairness benchmark, and a written complaints procedure is the first thing code compliance asks for. Dealers offering finance can cross-check the wider requirements on our FCA-regulated firms page.

Waste, Chemicals and High-Voltage Vehicles

Garage waste is largely hazardous waste: used oils, batteries, solvents and brake fluid all need authorised carriers, consignment notes and three years of records. The HSE's motor vehicle repair guidance adds the workshop risks: vehicle lifts, tyre inflation, hot work, historic asbestos in friction components and isocyanate spraying with its health surveillance expectations.

Electric and hybrid vehicles change the risk profile again, with high-voltage systems that retain residual charge and HSE expecting escalating competence from valeting through to high-voltage electrical work. A written EV procedure covering isolation, proving dead and keeping remote keys away from the vehicle is quickly becoming a workshop standard document.

What Policy Pros Delivers

Every document is written around your site: your test classes, your services, your finance position and your team. You get plain-English documents on professionally branded templates, consistent with each other and ready for a DVSA site review or an insurer's questions.

• MOT quality management systems, QC procedures and training record structures
• Finance sales, commission disclosure and complaints documentation for FCA-authorised dealers
• Customer-facing terms: estimates, authorisations, warranties and complaints
• Workshop health and safety policies, risk assessments, waste and EV procedures

How to Get Started

Tell us what the site does, whether you test, repair, sell or all three, and which documents already exist. We will come back with a fixed-price quote and a realistic timescale, usually the same working day.

Get a quote or call 020 3951 2875. If you also run recovery or haulage vehicles, our transport and haulage page covers the operator licence side, and our health and safety policies service covers the framework behind the workshop documents.