Explanatory note
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations amend the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (Large Goods and Passenger-Carrying Vehicles) Regulations 1990 (“the principal Regulations”) in the following ways.
Epilepsy and an epileptic attack since attaining the age of 5 years are no longer prescribed as relevant disabilities in relation to applicants for and holders of large goods and passenger-carrying vehicle driver’s licences. Instead, a person will not be entitled to hold a large goods or passenger-carrying vehicle driver’s licence if he is liable to suffer epileptic seizures: see regulations 3 and 4(a) and (b) of these Regulations.
Regulation 6(1)(b)(ii) of the principal Regulations is amended to ensure that it (rather than regulation 6(1)(b)(iii)) applies to a person who
held an existing licence on 1st January 1983, (b) did not hold such a licence on 1st April 1991, but (c) did hold a large goods or passenger-carrying vehicle driver’s licence on 1st March 1992: see regulation 4(c) of these Regulations.
The principal Regulations set out, in regulation 18, the requirements which a vehicle must meet if it is to be used on a driving test. These requirements vary depending on the nature of the test, and the date on which the test is to be taken. With regard to tests in which the candidate hopes to gain full entitlement to drive vehicles in category C or category C plus E, the requirements for the test vehicle will now change if the test is taken on or after 1st July 1996, not 1st April 1994 as previously provided. Moreover, the requirements for the test vehicle will now change so as to accord with the requirements laid down in the second Council Directive on the driving licence (91/439/EEC): see regulation 5 of these Regulations.
Schedule 1 to the principal Regulations has been amended: see regulation 6 of these Regulations. A combination of vehicles comprising a vehicle in category C (or D) and a single axle trailer weighing more than 5 tonnes is now a combination falling within category C plus E (or D plus E) not category C (or D) as was formerly the case.
Finally, Schedule 6 to the principal Regulations has been amended: see regulation 7 of, and Schedule 1 to, these Regulations. A statement of failure to pass a test of competence to drive a large goods or passenger-carrying vehicle no longer has to include the address of or be signed by the test candidate.