Side lights/parking lights ?

[ECR]

Are they a legal requirement? Are they required for mot?

I have found conflicting views.....

[Jonathan Kay]

Legally required... here's the Highway Code, although of course that isn't the actual regulations.

Rule 249
All vehicles MUST display parking lights when parked on a road or a lay-by on a road with a speed limit greater than 30 mph (48 km/h).
Law RVLR reg 24

MoT inspection... here's the manual, although of course that isn't the actual regulations. (They call them "position lights".)

Front and rear position lamps
Vehicles must have 2 front and 2 rear position lamps, except for tricycles or quadricycles that are less than 1,300mm wide.
Daytime running lamps (DRLs) or headlamps may function as front position lamps. If the DRLs function as front position lamps, they may or may not dim when rear position lamps are switched on and may dim or turn off when headlamps are switched on.
Front position lamps can switch off when the front fog lamps are switched on.
The front and rear position lamps must light up at the same time with the registration plate lamps and end-outline marker lamps.

Jonathan

[Shaun_E]

I ran without sidelights for a couple of years after the car was rewired and they were missed (my MOT tester at the time wasn't bothered) but when I moved house and had to use other testers, both the ones I tried insisted on there being "front and rear position lamps". I tried arguing with them that my headlights qualified  but they wouldn't accept that. Reluctantly I wired the lamps back in.

You can of course run without any lights at all as long as the car is "only used during daylight hours" but I guess if you are going to use the car regularly on the road that's not really ideal.

You could run with all the other lights and just accept the advisory "front position lights not working vehicle only used during daylight hours". The risk is that you get pulled over when it's dark and the MOT says you only use it during daylight hours.

[Toby S]

Then there is the other debate about use of sidelights v headlights