UK Offence Report

The Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Recording Equipment) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006

Northern Ireland Statutory Rule 2006 No. 274 — creates 8 criminal offences.

8offences created
0recorded in force
0revoked
Made
21 June 2006
In force from
31 July 2006
Extent
Not stated
Subject
Road traffic and vehicles
Made under
European Communities Act 1972

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — published with the instrument by the department that made it. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

These Regulations modify the provisions of the Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Recording Equipment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 to take account of the new digital tachograph provided for by Council Regulation (EC) No. 2135/98, which amended Regulation (EEC) No. 3821/85 on recording equipment in road transport. A digital tachograph is one which complies with Annex IB to the amended Regulation. They add, in new regulations 7A to 7F, more detailed enforcement provisions which apply where tachographs, whether analogue or digital, are used or documents are required under Community Rules. The enforcement powers are conferred on vehicle examiners and police constables. Under new regulation 7A vehicle examiners and police constables may require the production of records and the driver cards used with digital tachographs. They may copy the electronic data. New regulation 7B confers powers of entry on vehicle examiners and police constables. They may enter vehicles required to be fitted with tachographs, inspect equipment and other things on and in the vehicle, copy data and retain evidence. They may also enter premises. A time limit of six months is imposed by the new regulation 7C on the retention powers, unless the retained items are required for proceedings. Under new regulation 7D it is an offence not to comply with a vehicle examiner’s requirements or to obstruct him. The maximum penalty is level 5 on the standard scale. New regulation 7E provides for offences in respect of false records and data, destruction of records and data and failure to make relevant records. The offences extend to those causing or permitting the actions as well as those actually doing them. The maximum penalty on summary conviction is the statutory maximum; on conviction on indictment it is two years' imprisonment or a fine, or both. It is also an offence to produce, or to facilitate the production of, any device that is designed to interfere with the proper operation of recording equipment or would enable the falsification etc. of data. The maximum penalty is level 5 on the standard scale. The Regulations also amend the definition of “the Community Recording Equipment Regulation” to include reference to Regulation (EC) 561/2006. A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been produced and may be obtained from the Department of the Environment’s website at www.doeni.gov.uk/roadsafety.

Offences created by this instrument

What Parliament said about it

Hansard was searched for this instrument by name and returned nothing. That is the ordinary outcome: an instrument laid under the negative procedure is usually never debated, and becomes law without a word said about it in either House.

How Parliament handled it

Parliament's Statutory Instruments service records procedure from May 2017 onwards, and this instrument predates it. That is a limit of the source, not a statement that nothing happened.

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