According to the statutory instrument published on legislation.gov.uk, the Motor Vehicles (Type Approval and Approval Marks) (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 were made on 7 September 2026, laid before Parliament on 10 September 2026 and come into force on 1 November 2026. The measure applies across England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and updates the fee regime in the 1999 Regulations for vehicle and vehicle-part examinations. The Department for Transport’s main change is clear: type approval work will cost more, and the charging model now distinguishes between standard examination activity and specialist technical analysis. The Regulations were made under the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Finance Act 1973, with Treasury consent recorded in the instrument, and the Secretary of State states that representative organisations were consulted before the measure was made.
The basic hourly rate for a Department for Transport officer who is not a specialist rises from £89 to £134. That rate covers examination work, supervision of an examination and associated administrative activity, except for the issue of documents already charged for elsewhere in the fee schedule. Alongside that increase, the instrument creates a separate specialist rate of £192 per hour. That charge applies where a specialist carries out technical analysis during an examination of a vehicle or vehicle part, or related administrative work connected to that analysis.
A significant part of the amendment is definitional. The 1999 Regulations now add terms including 'control strategy', 'cyber security', 'cyber security management system', 'cyber threat', 'risk', 'software update management system', 'standard workshop equipment', 'technical analysis' and 'specialist'. In policy terms, that matters because the fees regime is being aligned with the way modern vehicles are regulated. Approval work is no longer limited to mechanical inspection. It now explicitly covers software behaviour, digital security, emissions control logic and the organisational systems manufacturers use to manage updates and cyber risks.
The definition of 'specialist' in the instrument is broad and specific. It includes Department for Transport officers carrying out analysis on emissions and environmental performance, cyber security and software updates, the safety performance of advanced driver assistance systems and automated driving systems, and modelling or simulation used to assess those systems. That wording is a clear signal about where regulatory effort is increasing. For manufacturers of connected, software-enabled or increasingly automated vehicles, approval costs are likely to reflect not just physical testing but the quality of technical evidence, safety cases and internal processes supplied to the regulator.
The amendment also introduces new examination charges where equipment owned by the Secretary of State is used. Schedule 6, inserted by the instrument, sets out additional fees for specified equipment groups, while two fixed charges apply across the board: £75 per examination where a reference instrument is used to calibrate or check relevant equipment, and £76 per examination where standard workshop equipment is used. For applicants, the practical point is that hourly fees may now sit alongside equipment charges within the same approval exercise. The final cost will depend on the nature of the examination, the testing set-up required and whether specialist analysis or government-owned equipment is needed.
The Regulations also make consequential amendments to existing provisions in the 1999 regime so that references to regulation 4 capture both the non-specialist and specialist fee routes. In effect, the charging structure is being updated so the new rates operate properly across the wider approval system. Those changes will be most relevant to vehicle manufacturers, importers, converters and approval representatives seeking type approval or approval marks for vehicles and vehicle parts. Firms working on low-volume, novel or highly software-dependent products may feel the change more sharply, because specialist scrutiny is more likely to feature in those cases.
The Explanatory Note states that no full impact assessment has been produced because the financial effect falls below the de minimis threshold and no significant effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is expected. A De Minimis Assessment and Explanatory Memorandum have been prepared by the Department for Transport and made available alongside the instrument. Even so, the amendment is more than a routine fee uplift. It shows how the UK type approval regime is adjusting its cost recovery approach to match vehicles that depend on software, connectivity and complex assisted or automated functions. The instrument does not by itself create new technical standards, but from 1 November 2026 applicants will need to budget for higher hourly charges and, where relevant, extra costs tied to specialist review and testing equipment.