The government is right to retain responsibility for public safety matters such as MOT tests

(The article can be read here: ‘It would be madness to get rid of our publicly funded MOT system,’ February 29)

I was responsible with others for fleet management in the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service and used the Health Service business model of Purchaser-Provider with access to a specialist MOT inspectorate to test vehicle reliability and ensure a legal standard of public safety.

Those who think the private sector should manage most of public services are embedded in an unbalanced philosophy that largely discards the need for a mixed economy of care.

Government award massive public contracts to the private sector for goods and services but rightly retain responsibility for public safety.

David Barbour MSc, HNC, Ex Ulster Unionist councillor, Coleraine