OUTDATED MOT tests should be scrapped as they do little to boost vehicle safety, a think tank has argued.

The Adam Smith Institute insisted motorists are forking out more than £250 million a year on MOT test fees and unnecessary repairs.

It is pushing UK officials to ditch the annual test, which was introduced to the UK in the 1950s.

Alex Hoagland, author of a new paper on the issue, insisted vehicles are “safer than ever”.

He said: “When these safety inspections were done away with in some US states, accident rates did not change. There’s no evidence that vehicle safety inspections improve vehicle safety.”

The think tank, which works to promote free market and neoliberal ideas, said the main culprit of car accidents in both the US and the UK is driver error.

It suggests scrapping the MOT test for all vehicles, except those more than three years old entering the UK from abroad.

Figures for 2016 show vehicle defects were a factor in 1,687 accidents, including 348 serious accidents and 28 fatal accidents.

A Department of Transport spokesperson said: “Britain has some of the safest roads in the world but there is always more to do, and we are continuing our work to reduce accidents, regardless of how they are caused.

“Although modern cars are better built and safer than those that existed when the MOT test was first introduced 58 years ago, there are still fatal accidents every year as a result of vehicle defects.”