OpenLegislation

Regulation 4 Issue of certificates

Original text. Later amendments are not shown.

(1)

The Secretary of State may issue a certificate of temporary exemption for a relevant vehicle—

(a)

if exceptional circumstances prevent an examination of that vehicle taking place before its use on a road would give rise to an offence under a relevant provision; or

(b)

if satisfied that an examination of that vehicle should be postponed for the purpose of mitigating the effects of exceptional circumstances on examinations generally.

(2)

The Secretary of State, when deciding whether to issue a certificate under paragraph (1)(b), may take into account—

(a)

in any case—

(i)

the age of the relevant vehicle;

(ii)

the vehicle’s technical characteristics;

(iii)

the nature of any goods that it is constructed or adapted to carry;

(b)

in the case of a relevant vehicle used under an operator’s licence—

(i)

the findings of any examination, or any inspection carried out under section 68 of the 1988 Actf1, of any relevant vehicle used under that licence;

(ii)

enforcement action against the licence holder in relation to the obligations imposed on that person by any enactment as the holder of such a licence (“the relevant obligations”);

(iii)

enforcement action against the driver of any vehicle used under that licence in relation to the use of that vehicle on a road;

(iv)

the licence holder’s membership of a publicised scheme, administered by the Secretary of State, for persons demonstrating compliance with the relevant obligations;

(v)

any action, direction or order, in relation to that licence or its holder, taken or made by a traffic commissioner under section 17 of the 1981 Actf2 or section 26, 27 or 28 of the 1995 Actf3 within the period of five years prior to the time of the Secretary of State’s consideration of the factors specified in this sub-paragraph.

(3)

In this regulation—

  • “enforcement action” means criminal proceedings, the issue of a fixed penalty notice under section 54 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988f4, the issue of a conditional offer under section 75 of that Act, or the imposition of a financial penalty deposit requirement under section 90A of that Act;

  • “exceptional circumstances” means an accident, a fire, an epidemic, severe weather, a failure in the supply of essential services or another unexpected event—

    1. (a)

      including prior or subsequent disruption attributable, in whole or in part, to such an event; but

    2. (b)

      excluding a breakdown of, or mechanical defect in, a vehicle or the absence of parts for repairing it.

Annotations

Footnotes

f1

Section 68 was substituted by the Road Traffic Act 1991 (c. 40), section 11.

f2

Section 17(1)-(3) were amended by the Transport Act 1985 (c. 67), section 3(5) and Schedule 2, paragraph 4(8), the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994 (c. 40), section 59(6), section 68 and Schedule 14(5), section 81 and Schedule 17, and S.I. 2011/2632 and 2013/1644.

f3

Section 26 was amended by the Road Safety Act 2006 (c. 49) (“the 2006 Act”), section 6, and S.I 2012/2404, 2013/1644 and 2016/481; section 27 was amended by S.I. 2011/2632 and 2013/1644; section 28 was amended by S.I. 2009/1941 and 2013/1644.

f4

1988 c. 53. Section 54(2) was amended by the 2006 Act, section 5 and Schedule 1, paragraph 3, and section 9(6) and Schedule 2, paragraph 14. Section 75 was substituted by the Road Traffic Act 1991 (c. 40), section 34, and subsections (1) to (3B) were variously amended or inserted by the Police Reform Act 2002 (c. 30), section 76(3), the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 (c. 20), section 69(2), the 2006 Act, section 5 and Schedule 1, paragraph 15, and S.I. 2018/24. Section 90A(1) was inserted by the 2006 Act, section 11.