Dead locked passenger door. MOT Fail?

In itself it's not a failure. However if it prevents the tester accessing another testable part of the car (like the seat belt anchorage points) then they may abandon the test or outright refuse to test which they are allowed to do under MOT rules.

I think that this is a very debatable point. As far as I see it... a rear passenger door that will not open full stop would be safer than one that one with a dodgy door that will open whilst the car is driving, the permanently locked door has just got to be the safest.I am not sure if this is covered in the MOT test so why not stop by a MOT garage and ask if you don't get a good enough answer here.

Open and close the driver’s and passengers’ doors. Check that each latches securely in the closed position. Check also that front doors can be opened from both inside and outside the vehicle. so yes it will fail. all doors must be able to be opened,front doors from the inside and outside,and all must securly latch

Actually, no. All doors must latch securely in the closed position and the driver's or FRONT passenger's door must be able to be opened from both inside and outside the vehicle from the relevant control in each case.

The rules are specific about it being the front doors. Rear doors are in fact excluded from the opening criteria - that's why we can have child locks.

i own an mot station ..its not straightforeward ..if the tester need to check the seatbelts then he probably could fail it on not being able to check them ..or he could open passenger side and lean in and check ..and providing there was no sign of rust around cills etc then in our garage he would get a pass ..there is nothing related to escape in the rules

Yes....the tester will see this when he checks the rear seatbelts..Its an esy fix though...about an hours labour..allow about 80 quid

Yes it will. The door has to allow escape

Yes, all doors must be able to be opened.

http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_620.htm

no