HOW DOES IT WORK?
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• The voluntary Code of Practice was drawn up following discussions between the VI and the SMMT in 1979. Under the code, manufacturers which find evidence of a safety defect are required to notify the VI and to make every effort to contact every owner, using recorded post if necessary.
A safety defect is defined as one which is "liable to cause significant risk of personal injury or death", although manufacturers often err on the side of caution and launch recalls for less serious faults.
The manufacturers have to supply details of these faults and how they are to be remedied; the VI monitors the effectiveness of the campaign until every owner has responded or both bodies have agreed that the remaining vehicles will not be located.
Although the vast majority of recalls are launched by the manufacturers themselves, the Vi also gathers information from its inspectors, the police and from vehicle tasting stations and it presents these findings to manufacturers.
Given the lack of legislative power, what can the VI dolt it identifies a defect but the manufacturer won't play ball? The ultimate big stick, says Sweating, is its right to go direct to the Transport Secretary who can then crack the whip. The VI has only had to resort to this twice in the past four years, and it was successful on both occasions.