Where a car can be inspected turns out to be one of the tighter constraints on a UK import. There are twenty-two IVA test centres in Great Britain, seven of them run by private companies rather than by DVSA, and only three of those seven will look at a car. Here is the whole list, what each site can actually test, and the thing most people get wrong about what “private” means here.
The short version
- DVSA examiners carry out every test, including at privately operated sites. There is no such thing as a private IVA tester.
- 22 centres in England, Scotland and Wales — 15 DVSA-run, 7 privately operated.
- 18 take passenger vehicles. Of the seven private sites, only three do.
- One centre in Scotland, one in Wales, and none of this list applies to Northern Ireland.
- You name the centre on your DVSA application rather than booking with the site.
Who actually carries out the test
This is the part worth getting straight before the list, because the wording invites a wrong conclusion. A privately operated IVA site is a venue, not an approving authority.
DVSA is running out a network of Vehicle Examination Facilities, announced on 4 February 2026, which allows approval tests to be conducted at third-party sites. The agency’s own description of the model settles the question: DVSA staff will continue to carry out the test. The examiner travels; the standard does not change; the certificate is still DVSA’s.
The reason for the change is straightforward. Most approval tests have historically happened at DVSA’s own Goods Vehicle Testing Stations, and DVSA acknowledges that many customers travel long distances to attend one. VEF sites can operate on their own account, as open-access sites testing third-party vehicles, or as a combination — and existing Privately Owned Testing Facilities can apply for VEF status too.
A private site is not a shortcut
Same examiner, same inspection manual, same fee. What a nearby site saves you is transport of an unregistered vehicle, which is a real cost — but nobody at a private facility can pass a car DVSA would fail.
The seven privately operated sites
Every centre on DVSA’s list that is not marked “This is a DVSA test centre”, as at the list dated 14 August 2026:
| Centre | Operator | Location | What it can test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Castle Donington | My Car Import | Willow Park Industrial Estate, Trent Lane, Derbyshire DE74 2PY | Passenger vehicles (incl. motor caravans, ambulances, hearses), vans up to 3,500kg, light trailers |
| Milton Keynes | Ship My Car | 20 Tanners Drive, Blakelands, MK14 5BN | Passenger vehicles — normal and basic IVA — and vans up to 3,500kg |
| Purfleet | Ensign Bus Company | Juliette Close, Purfleet Industrial Park, Essex RM15 4YF | Passenger vehicles and vans (normal IVA only), lorries over 3,500kg, buses and coaches (M3 class 1), dangerous goods, trailers |
| Halesowen | Motus Group (UK) Ltd (Imperial Commercials Ltd) | Park Rd, Halesowen B63 2RL | Vans up to 3,500kg, lorries over 3,500kg, dangerous goods, trailers |
| Peterborough | Aebi Schmidt UK Limited | Southgate Way, Orton Southgate, PE2 6GP | M class ambulances (no weight restriction), vans up to 3,500kg (normal IVA only), lorries over 3,500kg |
| Sheffield | Newell and Wright | Templeborough Depot, Sheffield Road, S9 1RT | Lorries over 3,500kg, dangerous goods, trailers |
| Lancashire | Wheelbase Engineering | Chanters Way, off Lower Eccleshill Road, Lower Darwen BB3 0RP | Vans up to 3,500kg, lorries over 3,500kg, dangerous goods, trailers |
Source: DVSA, 'Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) test centre locations', GOV.UK, updated 14 August 2026. Checked 1 September 2026.
Milton Keynes is the newest of them — added to the list on 14 August 2026 — and the only one that publishes its own telephone, email and website alongside its address on the GOV.UK entry. The others are listed by address alone.
Only three of them take cars
Four of the seven private sites are commercial-vehicle, trailer and specialist operations. If you are importing a car, the private network available to you is three sites, all of them in the Midlands and the south-east:
- Castle Donington (My Car Import) — passenger vehicles, vans up to 3,500kg and light trailers. Nothing over 6,500kg.
- Milton Keynes (Ship My Car) — passenger vehicles for both normal and basic IVA, which is the broadest car offer of the three, subject to the exclusions below.
- Purfleet (Ensign Bus Company) — normal IVA only for passenger vehicles. If your car falls into a basic IVA class — a personal import, a left-hand-drive vehicle, a hearse, a very low volume car — Purfleet cannot test it.
Check the class before you pick the site
Basic and normal IVA are different tests, and centres are listed separately for each. A left-hand-drive import is a basic IVA case, so Purfleet is out and Milton Keynes is in — a distinction that is invisible unless you read the individual centre entry rather than the regional list. Which route your car takes is worked out in do you need an IVA test.
All 22 centres, by region
22
IVA centres in Great Britain
15
run by DVSA
7
privately operated
18
that can test passenger vehicles
3
private sites that take cars
1
centre each in Scotland and Wales
| Region | Centre | Run by | Takes cars? |
|---|---|---|---|
| London and the South East | Gillingham, Kent | DVSA | Yes |
| Southampton (Northam) | DVSA | Yes — normal and basic | |
| Yeading, Hayes | DVSA | Yes | |
| South West | Bristol (Avonmouth) | DVSA | Yes |
| Exeter | DVSA | Yes | |
| West Midlands | Halesowen | Motus Group (UK) Ltd | No |
| Kidderminster | DVSA | Yes | |
| East Midlands | Castle Donington | My Car Import | Yes |
| Derby | DVSA | Yes | |
| Nottingham | DVSA | Yes | |
| East of England | Leighton Buzzard | DVSA | Yes |
| Milton Keynes | Ship My Car | Yes — normal and basic | |
| Norwich | DVSA | Yes | |
| Peterborough | Aebi Schmidt UK Limited | No | |
| Purfleet | Ensign Bus Company | Yes — normal IVA only | |
| Yorkshire and Humberside | Beverley | DVSA | Yes |
| Sheffield | Newell and Wright | No | |
| North West | Chadderton, Oldham | DVSA | Yes |
| Lancashire (Lower Darwen) | Wheelbase Engineering | No | |
| North East | Newcastle (Gosforth) | DVSA | Yes |
| Scotland | Edinburgh (Livingston) | DVSA | Yes |
| Wales | Cardiff (Miskin) | DVSA | Yes |
Source: DVSA IVA test centre locations, GOV.UK, updated 14 August 2026. 'Takes cars' means the entry lists passenger vehicles. Checked 1 September 2026.
Restrictions worth reading first
The regional list tells you a centre exists. The individual entry tells you whether it can take your car, and the restrictions are more specific than most people expect.
Milton Keynes
Cannot book tests for amateur built vehicles, vehicles manufactured using parts of a registered vehicle, rebuilt vehicles, or vehicles manufactured in very low volume. Cannot test vehicles over 4 metres in height, over 3,500kg, or any test that needs a turning circle.
Castle Donington
Cannot do IVA tests for vehicles weighing over 6,500kg.
Southampton, and why a DVSA site can be fussier
Southampton is DVSA-run and takes both normal and basic IVA, but its basic IVA list is restricted to motor caravans, ambulances, hearses, left-hand-drive vehicles, personal imports and armoured vehicles — and adds a mechanical condition. The vehicle must not be fitted with a limited slip differential and must either be two-wheel drive, or four-wheel or all-wheel drive where the driver can select two-wheel drive.
That LSD clause rules out a lot of 4x4 imports
A great many of the vehicles that come through our Japan and Gulf corridors — Land Cruisers, Patrols, performance saloons — have a limited slip differential and no selectable two-wheel-drive mode. It is a rolling-road constraint rather than a standards one, but the effect is the same: the nearest port is not necessarily the nearest test.
Five centres are also listed as able to carry out noise tests on vehicles with exhaust modifications over two metres in height: Gillingham, Bristol, Derby, Chadderton and Edinburgh.
How you choose a centre
You do not ring the site. GOV.UK’s instruction is to say which centre you want to use when you apply — the choice is part of the DVSA application, made through the online service. DVSA will usually offer you an inspection within 20 working days at the location you chose, wherever possible, having first responded to the application itself within around 10 working days.
That “wherever possible” is doing some work. Choosing a centre expresses a preference, not a reservation, and a site with narrow capability for your vehicle class has fewer slots to offer. The fee is identical whichever you name — £199 for a car inspection in working hours, as set out in what an IVA test costs.
The geography problem
Eighteen centres take cars, and their distribution is not even. Scotland has one, at Livingston. Wales has one, at Miskin. The whole of the north of England has three. Five of the eighteen sit in the East of England alone.
This matters because the car is unregistered and cannot legally be driven — the only journey permitted is to a pre-booked MOT or approval test. Everything else is a transporter, and a transporter from Aberdeen to Livingston is a different number from Aberdeen to Milton Keynes. Where your car lands and where it can be tested should be one decision, not two.
Northern Ireland is not on this list at all: DVSA’s centre publication applies to England, Scotland and Wales, and vehicle approval in Northern Ireland runs through its own arrangements.
The list is going to grow
DVSA said in February 2026 that it hoped to begin authorising sites that meet the required standards and to build the VEF network out over the following months, alongside continuing to provide IVA and MSVA at some existing sites. Milton Keynes in August was the first passenger-car addition since Castle Donington in April 2024. Check the GOV.UK list rather than this page before you commit to a route — it is the version that changes.
Where this sits in an import we handle
The approval route and the testable-location question belong in the decision before you buy, not after the vessel discharges. We confirm which route a specific car falls into and what it implies, and for UK-bound cars we file the NOVA declaration and prepare and submit the DVLA registration pack. The choice of port and the choice of test centre are worth making together, and you can make them on real numbers rather than after the fact.
Test centre locations, capabilities and restrictions are published and changed by DVSA without notice. This page reflects the GOV.UK list dated 14 August 2026, checked on 1 September 2026, and centre capability is quoted as GOV.UK states it. Confirm the current list and the individual centre entry at gov.uk before applying. Naming a company here records what DVSA publishes about its site and is not a recommendation or an endorsement.