Explanatory note
England, Wales and Scotland
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations make provision in relation to the coming into force of sections 144A, 144B, 144C and 159A of the Road Traffic Act 1988 which introduce the offence of being the registered keeper of a vehicle which does not have insurance cover (“the section 144A offence”), provide for exceptions to that offence, provide that liability to conviction for the offence may be discharged by paying a fixed penalty of £100 and provide for the disclosure of information in connection with enforcement.
These Regulations—
prescribe the requirements to be met in order to be excepted from the section 144A offence by reason of the vehicle having been sold or transferred, whether for destruction, permanent export or otherwise, having been stolen or being kept off-road (regulations 2 to 4);
amend section 144B of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to provide a further exception to the section 144A offence for a vehicle which has been kept off-road since before the coming into force on 1st February 1998 of the requirement, where a vehicle is kept off-road, to declare that it is so kept (regulation 5);
provide that the fixed penalty of £100 is reduced to £50 if that amount is paid within 21 days of notice being given that a section 144A offence has been committed and require a fixed penalty notice to so state (regulation 6); and
provide for the Motor Insurers’ Information Centre to make available to the Secretary of State, for the purpose of enforcing the section 144A offence, information relating to vehicle insurance policies in the United Kingdom and to vehicles which are permitted to be used on the road without insurance (regulation 7).
An impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from the Freight, Insurance and Licensing Division at the Department for Transport, Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DR and is annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside this instrument at www.legislation.gov.uk.
A copy of the assessment has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament.