Section 97 Installation and use of recording equipment : EU requirements.F1F40C1

No person shall use, or cause or permit to be used, a vehicle to which this section applies

A person shall not be liable to be convicted under subsection (1) of this section if he proves to the court that he neither knew nor ought to have known that the recording equipment had not been installed or repaired, as the case may be, in accordance with the F17EU Tachographs Regulation.

A person shall not be liable to be convicted under subsection (1) F18(a) of this section if he proves to the court that the vehicle in question was proceeding to a place where recording equipment which would comply with F19... the F20EU Tachographs Regulation was to be installed in the vehicle in accordance with that Regulation.

A person shall not be liable to be convicted under subsection (1) (a) of this section by reason of the recording equipment installed in the vehicle in question not being in working order if he proves to the court that—

A person shall not be liable to be convicted under subsection (1) (a) of this section by reason of any seal on the recording equipment installed in the vehicle in question not being intact if he proves to the court that—

A person shall not be liable to be convicted under subsection (1)(a) of this section by reason of the driver card not being used with the recording equipment installed in the vehicle in question if he proves to the court that—

A person shall not be liable to be convicted under subsection (1) of this section by reason of using recording equipment which does not bear F27the relevant UK type-approval mark or the relevant EU type-approval mark (see Article 11A of the EU Tachographs Regulation) if he proves to the court that the use of the recording equipment was in the course of a field test authorised under section 96A.

Where a person (“the driver”)—

the employer also commits an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine.

A person shall not be liable to be convicted under subsection (4C) in respect of the use of a vehicle if the requirements of Article 10(1) and (2) of the Community Drivers’ Hours Regulation (liability of transport undertakings) and Article 33(1) of the EU Tachographs Regulation (responsibility of transport undertakings) were complied with in relation to that use.

For the purposes of this section recording equipment is used as provided by F28Articles 27 to 29 and 32 to 37 of the EU Tachographs Regulation if, and only if, the circumstances of its use are such that each requirement of those Articles is complied with.

This section applies at any time to any vehicles to which this Part of this Act applies if, at that time, Article 3 of the F29EU Tachographs Regulation requires recording equipment to be installed and used in that vehicle; and in this section and F30sections 97B to 97G of this Act F31(so far as those sections relate to the EU Tachographs Regulation) any expression which it is also used in that Regulation has the same meaning as in that Regulation.

In this Part of this Act—

• F32“Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/799” means Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/799 of 18 March 2016 implementing Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the requirements for the construction, testing, installation, operation and repair of tachographs and their components, as amended from time to time;

• “Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85” means Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 of 20 December 1985 on recording equipment in road transport;

• F33“the equivalent EU Regulation” means Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on tachographs in road transport as it has effect in EU law, as amended from time to time;

• F34“the EU Tachographs Regulation” means Regulation (EU) No. 165/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on tachographs in road transport F35, as amended from time to time, F36...

• “recording equipment” means equipment for recording information as to the use of a vehicle.

• F37“the relevant EU type-approval mark”, in relation to recording equipment, means a type-approval mark issued by an EU member State in relation to that type of recording equipment under Article 14 of the equivalent EU Regulation;

• F38“the relevant technical specifications” means Annex II of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/799, and—

  1. (a)

     in the case of a vehicle put into service for the first time before 1st May 2006—

     1. (i)

        Annex I of the EU Tachographs Regulation,

     2. (ii)

        Annex IB of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 for as long as preserved and applied by Article 46 of the EU Tachographs Regulation, or

     3. (iii)

        Annex 1C to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/799;

  2. (b)

     in the case of a vehicle put into service for the first time on or after 1 May 2006 but before the date on which the Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Tachographs) (Amendment etc.) Regulations 2019 come into force—

     1. (i)

        Annex IB of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 for as long as preserved and applied by Article 46 of the EU Tachographs Regulation; or

     2. (ii)

        Annex IC to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/799; and

  3. (c)

     in the case of a vehicle put into service for the first time on or after the date on which the Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Tachographs) (Amendment etc.) Regulations 2019 come into force, Annex 1C to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/799.

• F39“the relevant UK type-approval mark”, in relation to recording equipment, means the mark which is “the relevant type-approval mark” in relation to the marking of that equipment, for the purposes of the Motor Vehicles (Type Approval) Regulations 1980.