Wipers, Washers and Demisters

What is actually in the sources

Windscreen wiper, required?

YesRegulation 203 — at least one, that works other than by hand

Standard it must meet

Wipe continuously, evenly and adequately, directly in front of the driver

Exempted

A motor cycle, motor tricycle or motor quadricycle without a fixed hood

In the syllabus

Control 2, on every diagramLight vehicle, heavy vehicle, manual or automatic gearbox — the number never changes

Demister, required?

No source foundAbsent from the Act, the regulations and all three Department of Transport manuals

What the law actually requires of a wiper

Regulation 203 is short and specific. No person may operate a motor vehicle on a public road with a windscreen unless it has at least one windscreen wiper, capable of being operated by something other than manual means, and that wiper must — when it is running — wipe the outside of the windscreen directly in front of the driver continuously, evenly and adequately.

Three words are doing the work there. "Continuously" rules out a wiper that skips or judders. "Evenly" rules out one that clears one arc and leaves a smear across the rest. "Adequately" is the catch-all — a wiper technically moving but not actually clearing your view fails the regulation regardless of the first two words.

The one exemption in the regulation is a motor cycle, motor tricycle or motor quadricycle with no fixed hood — a machine with nothing resembling a windscreen has nothing for the requirement to attach to.

The Department of Transport's Rules of the Road manual restates the same duty for the syllabus in almost identical words, at section 6.20.

Where the wiper sits in the controls syllabus

In the vehicle-controls manual's numbering, the wiper is always control 2 — on the light-vehicle diagram, the heavy-vehicle diagram, and both the manual- and automatic-gearbox versions of each. It is one of the few controls that never moves position or number between the diagrams.

Two of the manual's own sample questions ask about it directly: "which control is used to clean the front windscreen of the vehicle" and "when driving in the rain the following control is used" are both answered with control 2. A third gives the identification the other way round: "control no. 2 is the ... windscreen wipers."

Demisters: not in the law, not in the syllabus

This is worth being direct about, because a page that quietly assumes demisters are examined would be inventing content the syllabus does not contain. The word "demist" does not appear anywhere in the National Road Traffic Act, the National Road Traffic Regulations, or any of the three Department of Transport learner-driver manuals. There is no demister control in the numbered component list for a light vehicle, a heavy vehicle or a motorcycle.

That does not make a clear windscreen optional — it makes demisting a different kind of requirement from a wiper. Regulation 204(1)(a) requires a vehicle to afford the driver a full and clear view of the roadway ahead and to the right and left, at all times. A fogged-up windscreen defeats that requirement just as effectively as a broken wiper does, even though the regulation is written about the outcome — a clear view — and never mentions the heater, the fan or the demist setting that gets you there.

So the honest way to put it is this: clearing condensation off your windscreen before you drive is what the unobstructed-view requirement asks of you in practice, on a misty or cold morning. It is not, on the sources available here, a separately named legal control or a syllabus item in its own right.

Common questions