# The Vehicle Excise (Design Weight Certificate) Regulations 1995, Paragraph 2: Determination of design weight where a vehicle has never been issued with either a plating certificate or a design weight certificate


(1) This paragraph applies to a vehicle if no plating certificate or design weight certificate has ever been issued in respect of it.
(2) Where a vehicle to which this paragraph applies is submitted for a design weight examination, a vehicle examiner shall cause the vehicle to be examined for the purpose of determining whether—
(a) the vehicle is of a make, model and type to which the standard lists apply;
(b) the constructional particulars relating to that make, model and type are substantially complied with by the vehicle; and
(c) the weights shown in the standard lists are applicable to the vehicle.
(3) For the purpose mentioned in sub-paragraph (2) above, the vehicle examiner shall have regard to—
(a) the particulars as respect to the vehicle shown in the application form; and
(b) any information which may have been supplied to the Secretary of State subsequent to the publication of standard lists as to the applicability of any of the weights shown in those lists.
(4) If the vehicle examiner determines that the vehicle is of a make, model and type or otherwise one to which the weight shown in the standard lists apply, there shall be determined as the design weight, the weight which appears from those lists for vehicles of that make, model and type (however shown or otherwise expressed) to be—
(a) if the vehicle is a tractive unit, the weight which is required by the design of the vehicle not to be exceeded by an articulated vehicle which—
(i) consists of the vehicle and any semi-trailer being drawn by it, and
(ii) is in normal use and travelling on a road laden; or
(b) if the vehicle is not a tractive unit, the weight which the vehicle is designed not to exceed when in normal use and travelling on a road laden.
(5) If the vehicle examiner determines that the vehicle is not of a make, model and type or otherwise not one to which the weights shown in the standard lists apply, he shall determine the design weight of the vehicle having regard—
(a) to any information which may have been supplied by the Secretary of State as to the plated weights or design weights which have been determined for similar vehicles under the Plating and Testing Regulations or these Regulations;
(b) to the design, construction and equipment of the vehicle, and the stresses to which it is likely to be subject when in use on the roads;
(c) to any information which may be available about the weights at which the vehicle was originally designed to be driven on roads;
(d) if the vehicle or its equipment has, or appears to have, been adapted since the date of its manufacture, to the likely effect of any such adaptation in making the vehicle fit to be driven safely on roads at weights different from those at which it appears to the vehicle examiner the vehicle was originally designed to be so driven; and
(e) to the requirements as to brakes specified in the definition of “standard lists” in regulation 3(1) of the Plating and Testing Regulations.
(6) When the vehicle examiner has determined the design weight in accordance with this paragraph, he shall cause a design weight certificate to be issued.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/1455/schedule/paragraph/2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/vehicle-excise-design-weight-certificate-regulations-1995/schedule/paragraph-2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.