UK Offence Report

Information about resident Community licence holders

paragraph 15B(11) of SCHEDULE 1 of The Driving Licences (Community Driving Licence) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

11 A person who drives

a motor vehicle on

a road is guilty of an offence if he fails without reasonable excuse—

a to comply with

a requirement contained in

a notice served on him in pursuance of paragraph (10), or

b to comply with

a requirement imposed under paragraph (6) or (7).

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

motor vehicle on a road is guilty of an offence if he fails without reasonable excuse— a to comply with a requirement contained in a notice served on him in pursuance of paragraph (10), or b to comply with a requirement imposed under paragraph (6) or (7).

What would breach paragraph 15B(11) of SCHEDULE 1?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. On these words an offence is committed where a person drives a motor vehicle on a road.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Driving Licences (Community Driving Licence) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
13 September 1996
In force from
Not determined
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations.) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations amend the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981, certain other Orders, the Transport Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 and the Motor Vehicles (International Circulation) Order (Northern Ireland) 1990 so as to give effect to Council Directive 91/439/EEC of 29th July 1991 on driving licences (O.J. No. L237, 24.8.91, p. 1). The Directive applies, by virtue of Decision 7/94 of the EEA Joint Committee (O.J. L160, 28.6.94, p. 1), to states within the European Economic Area. The principal changes made are as follows— holders of driving licences issued by states within the EEA (called “Community licences”) who become resident in Northern Ireland are authorised to drive here without the need to exchange their licences for Northern Ireland ones within a year of taking up residence; the right to exchange, however, is not removed and, where necessary for the purpose of applying Northern Ireland legislative provisions as to periods of validity, standards of health and fitness and driving disqualification, exchange of licences is made mandatory; a Community licence held by a Northern Ireland resident is valid for the same period as an equivalent Northern Ireland licence unless it would have expired earlier had the holder remained in the state of issue or would otherwise have been invalid in that state (in which case its validity is governed by the law of that state); resident Community licence holders are made subject to the same standards of health and fitness and the same regime of medical checks as persons holding Northern Ireland licences; resident Community licence holders who hold licences entitling them to drive large goods and passenger-carrying vehicles are made subject to the drivers' conduct regime of Part V of the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981; resident Community licence holders who hold licences entitling them to drive certain classes of goods and passenger-carrying vehicles are required to submit to the Department details of their driving entitlement and other information within a year of becoming resident; other resident Community licence holders may submit such details if they choose; provision is made, by amendment of the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 and by modification of the Department’s regulation-making powers under that Order for— the recategorisation of vehicles for licensing purposes, and changes in the minimum age limit for driving motor cycles; the right to the issue of a Northern Ireland driving licence is restricted to persons normally resident in Northern Ireland or, in some cases, in the United Kingdom; the benefit of certain statutory provisions, such as the right to be licensed to drive a taxi or to drive small buses for charitable and similar purposes is extended to holders of Community licences who are authorised to drive motor cars. Copies of the EEC Directive referred to in this note can be obtained from Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 16 Arthur Street, Belfast.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”
Confidence
0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source