A mate has a 250cc off-road buggy that he reckons is road legal (it’s got all the lights, indicators, mud guards, etc.) – what’s involved in actually registering it for use on the road?

Speak to the DVLA.

If it was designed and manufactured as road legal, then it won’t be a problem.

I’m sure top gear did something whith their home made cars, as above if it’s designed and built as Road legal then it’s just testing it. If not it’s possible with the right payment

It’ll need an IVA inspection. Download a guide and see if anything needs doing, if it looks ok take it to a test centre and hopefully get it certified.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-the-individual-vehicle-approval-iva-scheme

You don’t need an IVA if the manufacturer designed it to be road legal and got ECWVTA sorted.

VIN plate from a pre-1960 vehicle- tax and MOT exempt, job jobbed 😉 You have not been charged for this advice 😉

(I feel I should point out for the humourly challenged that that wasn’t a serious reply.)

What nealglover said. You’ll have to fill a form in (V55 I think), insure it on the chassis number, get it MOTed (it’s ok to drive to your local tame MOT station if you’re insured at this point), you may have to have it inspected at a local DVLA office (but not IVA/SVA-ed) to check it is what you’re saying it is and not some ridiculous home-brewed Wallace and Gromit contraption, pay a registration fee and also buy road tax (what’s the proper name for this?). It’s a bit of PITA but not insurmountable.

edit- once that’s done, remove the asthmatic 250 single donk and stick an IL4 600 in it or something. And take video, lots of video…

Its a Hammerhead 250 SuperSport and according to the internetz they have a certificate of conformity (ECWVTA).
Owner is speaking to the DVLA next week. Sounds like it should be easy enough.

Register it as an agricultural vehicle and it’ll be MOT and tax exempt.