Explanatory note

These Regulations consolidate, with the Regulations which amended them, the Road Transport (International Passenger Services) Regulations 1980, and make further amendments.

The principal effects of the further amendments are—

1. (a)

   to implement in relation to Great Britain the Agreement on the International Carriage of Passengers by Road by means of Occasional Coach and Bus Services (ASOR), which requires the Member States of the European Economic Community and the other States which are parties to that agreement to facilitate the operation of such services, and Council Regulation (EEC) No. 56/83 of 19th December 1982 concerning the implementation of that Agreement. (Regulations 2(1)(b), (c) and (d), 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20 and 22);

2. (b)

   to provide for the issue of the control document for occasional services, specified in Article 7 of ASOR or in Article 2 of Commission Regulation 1016/68, by the Bus and Coach Council (Regulations 13(2) and 15(1)) and to require applicants for the control document to pay to the Bus and Coach Council a fee of such amount as may, with the approval of the Secretary of State, be required by the Council (Regulation 14(5));

3. (c)

   to enable an examiner (as defined in Regulation 2(1)(h)) to require the production, and to inspect and copy, the model document with stiff green covers required to be carried on a vehicle used to provide occasional services and to detain the vehicle for such time as is required for the purposes of inspecting and copying the document (Regulation 16(3)(d)); and

4. (d)

   to increase from £200 to £400 the maximum penalty on summary conviction of an offence under Regulation 19 and 20 of these Regulations.