Just under 800 cars were reported as defective in some form last year, figures released in Tynwald show.

Middle MHK Bill Shimmins had asked the Minister for Home Affairs Bill Malarkey MHK how many cars were stopped and defects reported during the last five winter safety campaigns.

The Minister said that the police didn’t hold such data to answer properly answer Mr Shimmin’s question.

Mr Malarkey added: ’However, in order to assist in as far as it is possible the constabulary have provided data to show the number of times that officers have found defective motor vehicles and issued to their owners, drivers, or riders notices requiring defects to be corrected.’

The police provided figures from 2016 onwards but only 2017 and 2018 had full records for defections.

The figures released show that 790 cars were reported as defective in 2018, with 131 in November and December.

The basic figures for 2016 show that there were 203 defections noted with 181 of them reported defects coming in November and December.

However, that figure represents a fall from 2017 when the number of reported defects was 887 with 275 in November and December.

In light of the lack of figures, Mr Malarkey invited Mr Shimmins to meet Chief Constable Gary Roberts to further discuss the issue.