PM orders test crisis probe – after MCN exposé

The Prime Minister has demanded answers from the Transport Minister over the drastic fall in new riders taking the motorcycle test.

Gordon Brown was put on the spot during Prime Minister’s Question Time yesterday – by an MP who learnt of the crisis from MCN. 

Anne Main, Conservative MP for St Albans, asked: “Since 2008 and the introduction of new rules on motorcycling and tests, the number of people taking the test has declined by 62% and the number of people passing the test has declined by 58 per cent.

“The motorbiking industry is extremely important in the UK. What will the Prime Minister do to rectify what is obviously a very poor system?”

The PM answered: “I shall take the figures that the honourable Lady has given me and ask the Transport Minister to look into that very matter.

“It is important that we have a strong motorcycling industry in this country, and it is important that her question about the specifics of the tests be answered.”

Anne Main’s husband Andy raised the issue with his wife after reading in MCN that 50,000 fewer riders had taken the new test during its first eight months. He said: “As a life-long biker, I was very concerned to read the article. I decided to give my wife a call, and she doesn’t sit around.

“She managed to get a question asked in Prime Minister’s Question Time.”

For more on this, get MCN, on sale March 3.