The MOT regs state...
"a silencer in such condition, or of such a type, that the noise emitted from the vehicle is clearly unreasonably above the level expected from a similar vehicle with a silencer in average condition."
So if your exhaust is much louder than standard, it should fail the MOT.
Just because it gets through an MOT does not mean its legal to be on the road. There are also also EEC directives for db levels and manafacturing standards (Regulations 54, 55 & 55a) which state that your exhaust has to comply with the relevant standards and has to have a type stamp on it. So a home brew exhaust will not comply with that. But, not many police officers know about the regulations in the first place, and if they do, it is unlikley they are going to crawl around your Land Rover looking for type stamps. (p.s doesn't apply to vehicles registered before 1st october 1983)
my answer was 'where have you heard that **** from' then he explained that it won't alter the emmissions on a large diesel engine but would be a definite fail on a petrol engine
Taken from the testers manual...
"1.a. A part of the system missing or excessively deteriorated"
If a cat was removed, even if it was replaced with something different, that
could be deemed as "part of the system missing" perhaps?