If a failure was issued, then the car has no valid MOT. Therefore, using it on the public highway is a criminal offence, and their insurance will not be valid if they have an accident.
I understand that if the current MOT hasn't expired and the testing station hasn't declared the vehicle dangerous, then it's perfectly OK to use it until it's repaired, or the current MOT expires?
A correction : just checked the DVLA, here :
www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/after-the-test
This states that the old MOT is still valid, even though the failure is recorded on the database, however it also does state that if your vehicle is unroadworthy and you are stopped, then prosecution is a possibility.
Personally, if a car fails on a roadworthiness issue (and a non-functioning handbrake, to me, makes a car unroadworthy), then I'd be very dubious about using it until fixed. If an accident occurred, or if the car rolled away on a hill, then your insurance would be able to see that you knew the car was faulty, and continued to used it anyway. Insurance policies contain a clause about 'maintaining your vehicle in a roadworthy condition' ... a perfect get-out clause in a case like this, so your insurance might not be valid !
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