Originally Posted by Loomer

They have to advise you if covers are fitted, because they are not allowed to remove them, meaning quite a few testable items are hidden and they cannot see behind them to check them. its about covering themselves, if you drove away down the road and something behind the covers failed, you could not point the finger at them.

Same reason they do only a visual check on seat belts when a child seat is fitted, so if it isn't strapped in properly and the worse happened, you couldn't point the finger at them.

The handbrake cover is fine to advise imo, if you found it jammed the handbrake for some reason, and the car rolled down a hill killing somebody, you couldn't point the finger at the tester, instead he has put the responsibility onto you, for knowing you were driving a vehicle with a defect.

People these days always want to point the finger and get money out of someone else for nothing, so everyone has to cover themselves to avoid having the piss taken.