When the AE is a sole trader the responsibility for taking action to ensure that the authorisation is operated in accordance with the Secretary of State's requirements and the penalties for failure to do so falls on that person. With partnerships and companies, however, individuals must ensure correct operation of testing. The responsibility therefore falls not only on the company or partnership but also on the following individuals:

in the case of the company, all the officers of the company and any other person duly authorised by the company to sign applications or similar documentation relating to authorisation.
in the case of a partnership, each partner and any other person 'duly authorised' by the partnership to sign applications and other similar documents relating to the authorisation.

Where the constitution or administration of a business changes, and the individual AE or one or more partners or directors or officers of the company continue under the new entity, any records - including those of disciplinary matters - will continue to be regarded as relevant to the reconstituted business. Similarly if any individual AE, partner or director or officer of a company takes up an equivalent role with another AE, any existing records (again including disciplinary ones) will be regarded as relevant to the new AE.

When shortcomings are found either in testing or in operation of testing scheme VI will take action according to the circumstances. For minor shortcomings this will usually consist of advice or counselling, but for more serious cases (or repeated minor shortcomings) more formal disciplinary action may be considered.

The Secretary of State has absolute discretion to disqualify NTs from testing and to withdraw the authorisation of the AEs. These functions are carried out on behalf of the Secretary of State by VI.

VI reserves the right to modify the points or actions of disciplinary procedure that it follows. VI will tell all registered AEs about any such modifications through Special Notices or by amended pages being produced.

For full details on VI's disciplinary process please refer to the MOT Testing Guide 5th Edition.