There is no restriction on the distance between where the vehicle begins and ends its journey to the MoT station. The only requirement is that the test must be pre-booked and you must drive directly there.

There were two cases I came across which challenged this. The first involved a driver who set out to drive from Birmingham to London for a test. He had recently moved to Birmingham. A garage in London took care of his car and he wanted that to continue, including them carrying out his MoT. He was stopped in Birmingham, explained the situation but was issued with a fixed penalty for no MoT. The officer insisted the testing station had to be within a "reasonable" distance and did not even bother to check with the London garage that they had the car booked in (nor, it seems, with the relevant legislation). He declined the FP, took the matter to court and was acquitted.

The second involved a driver who was on his way to a pre-booked MoT but called at a petrol station to buy a sandwich and some cigarettes. He was stopped in the petrol station (by an officer doing the same as he was) and he too received a FP. The officer's contention was that, having stopped in the petrol station (which was on the direct route to the MoT station) he had not driven "directly" there. He too took the matter to court and was acquitted.

So, just make sure you pre-book the test (and try to have some confirmation of it such as a text message) and drive by the most direct route to it. But make sure you have insurance.

PS - I've just seen the duplicate question in "Motoring Matters". A few of the answers there are complete nonsense.

Edited by Middleman on 09/04/2018 at 16:41