Explanatory note

These Regulations amend regulation 27 of the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) 2002 (“regulation 27”), which allows the Secretary of State to make available, for certain purposes, the particulars kept on the vehicle register under the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994. One of those purposes is the investigation by a local authority of a “decriminalised parking contravention”, which is defined as any act or omission which would have been an offence but for certain provisions in the Road Traffic Act 1991 (c. 40). In England and Wales, the Traffic Management Act 2004 repealed those provisions (see Schedule 12, Part 1, to that Act), and created, in its Part 6, a power to subject, by Regulations, certain road traffic contraventions to a civil enforcement regime it created.

Regulation 2(2) restricts to Scotland the application of the power of the Secretary of State to make particulars available to local authorities for purposes connected with decriminalised parking contraventions. In England and Wales, the regulation creates a power for the Secretary of State to make particulars available for use by a local authority in relation to its activities under the civil enforcement regime created by Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004.

Regulation 2(3) amends the definition of “decriminalised parking contravention” in regulation 27, to delete the reference to two provisions of the Road Traffic 1991 that related to Greater London.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.