The DVSA published revised HGV and PSV inspection manuals on 19 February 2026. Both took effect on 1 April 2026 and are the versions examiners are working to now. This is a clarification update rather than a rewrite of the inspection framework, but several of the changes affect how a defect gets categorised, and one of them changes what a defect is called in the first place.
Here’s what is actually in the revision, section by section, and what it means for the way you inspect your own vehicles.
Every version of the manual carries a revision record in the front pages, listing each amended section, a short description of the change, and the date it applies from. Anything dated 01/04/2026 is new in this version.
Inside the manual, a black vertical line in the left margin marks any page where the test procedure, standards or a deficiency has changed. That convention has existed for years, but the April 2026 version has added a note to About this Manual spelling it out, so it is now formally documented rather than assumed knowledge.
If you only have ten minutes, read the revision record and then go to the pages carrying black lines.
Adapted driver’s controls. Both manuals have added a definition to the Interpretation of Terms section. Where disabled driver’s controls or fitments are additional to the standard controls and do not adversely affect the standard vehicle equipment, they are not testable items, although a defect found in them should still be reported to the presenter. Where those controls replace or affect the standard controls, they are tested in the normal way and defects are recorded in the normal way.
That gives workshops a clear line on adapted vehicles that previously relied on individual judgement.
The biggest single change is to inspection item 74. It has been renamed from Other Dangerous Defects to Other Dangerous Defects and Conditions, the section has been rewritten to define what a condition is and give examples, and the word “condition” has been added to the deficiency text itself.
The distinction matters. A defect is something wrong with a component. A condition is a state the vehicle is in that presents a danger without any single component necessarily having failed. Under the previous wording, an examiner faced with the second scenario had to reach for a defect that did not quite fit. The new wording gives them a category that does.
For operators, the practical read-across is that your own defect reporting and PMI sheets should have somewhere to put a dangerous condition. If your sheet only offers component-by-component tick boxes, there is no home for it.
The HGV manual has also corrected the deficiency numbers listed for IM9 Sideguards in the Standards for Prohibition Issue at Statutory Test table. Worth checking if you have transcribed those references into your own paperwork.
Section 6, Road Wheels and Hubs. A paragraph has been added to strengthen the requirement for wheel embellishers and nut covers to be removed before test. Presenters should remove them beforehand if they prevent a full examination, and may be asked to remove them at the test. Where that cannot be done, the examiner continues the inspection and records an advisory stating that the embellishers were not removed.
This is an easy one to get right. Take them off before the vehicle goes in and you avoid an advisory on the test documentation.
Section 7, Size and Type of Tyres. Wording has been added on verifying load indexes that are not genuine, and on what to do when a load index cannot be found because it has been scrubbed off by wear. The manual’s position is that a load index branded onto a tyre with the speed symbol missing, rather than scrubbed off, is not valid and must be ignored. Where a speed rating has genuinely worn away, minimum requirements are assumed to be met and the customer is advised.
Section 26, Speedometer/Tachograph picked up the most detail of any section in this revision. There is a new procedure covering snap-off tachograph seals that have not been snapped off, along with two new deficiencies to align with it. A new part covers digital tachograph printouts, how to identify calibration dates and the order in which to select them. Wording elsewhere in the section now refers to a depleted roll, and the point at which the check ends has changed from the vehicle leaving site to the test being concluded.
If your inspectors check tachograph calibration as part of a periodic inspection, the printout guidance is the part to walk through with them.
Section 33, Speed Limiter. The HGV version has had legacy dates removed from the speed limiter requirements. Both manuals have replaced a reference to her majesty with his majesty. That second one is housekeeping rather than a standards change.
Section 38, Service Brake Operation. The procedure and standards have been amended to add an inspection procedure covering air pressure, vacuum, hydraulic and full pressure hydraulic systems. A new paragraph covers modern vehicles with multifunction displays, where malfunction indicator lamps may not carry out a system check in the way an examiner would expect.
That second point is a genuine technology catch-up. On a vehicle where the MIL does not run a visible bulb check at start-up, an examiner previously had limited guidance on how to treat it.
The HGV manual has two further brake-related tidies. Section 12 has a new note on what to do where trailer airlines have couplings at both ends, which does not comply with the regulations and should be advised. Section 71 has had a paragraph removed that had been copied across from section 12 in error.
Section 1 has been rewritten in both manuals to incorporate font type, size and spacing. The section now sets out plate dimensions, character formats, permitted borders, the rules for vehicles first used on or after 1 September 2021, and what is acceptable on older vehicles.
Examiners are not required to physically measure characters or spacing and should only reject a plate where it is obviously incorrect. In practice, this is aimed at non-standard, stylised and 3D plates.
Section 67, Aim of Headlamps now clarifies in both manuals that any adjustment made outside of the cab adjuster will be a deficiency.
Section 62, Markers and Reflectors. The HGV manual defines the requirements for triangular reflectors, further defines the requirements for triangular reflectors fitted to trailers and vehicles, and clarifies that conspicuity marking measurements are taken in a 2D plane. Section 54, Steering has had turntables added to its procedure and standards.
Bus and coach operators have three additional sections to look at.
Section 16, Passenger Doors, Driver Doors and Emergency Exits. The manual now clarifies where power operated doors should be opened from, and confirms that door safety systems will be assessed at annual test using a DVSA supplied tool of 150mm diameter. A new deficiency covers cases where no gap exists between an advert or film and the bonding or frame. A paragraph on measuring double leaf doors separately has been removed.
Section 21, Interior of Body, Passenger Entrances, Exit Steps and Platforms. A fire extinguisher gauge check has been added, and the section now further defines where an accessibility certificate points the examiner to item 24 instead.
Section 24, Accessibility Features. The application section now states that item 24 does not apply to vehicles carrying 22 or fewer passengers.
Slightly earlier, the DVSA published a revised Individual Vehicle Approval inspection manual for N2 and N3 vehicles on 21 November 2025, applying from 28 November 2025. That update covered blind spot information systems in lateral protection, rear protective devices, new documentary evidence requirements for 50mm ball couplings and revised standards for modified exhausts.
It only applies to vehicles going through IVA rather than annual test, so it matters most to anyone building, importing, converting or substantially modifying heavy goods vehicles.
Four practical steps.
Read the revision record for the manual that applies to your fleet and mark the sections relevant to the vehicles you run. A tipper operator and a coach operator are not affected by the same pages.
Compare your PMI sheet against the changed sections. The two most likely to need a wording change are section 74, if your sheet has no category for a dangerous condition, and section 26, if your tachograph checks do not cover calibration printouts.
Brief the people carrying out the inspections. A revision that has been read but not passed on has not changed anything about how your vehicles are checked.
Ask your maintenance provider the same question if inspections are outsourced. Responsibility for roadworthiness stays with the operator regardless of who holds the spanners, so it is worth having their answer on file.
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