UK Offence Report

Amendments to the Vehicle Drivers (Certificates of Professional Competence) Regulations 2007

regulation 2(10)(g) of The Vehicle Drivers (Certificates of Professional Competence) (Amendment) Regulations 2020

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

g after paragraph (3) insert— 3A A person to whom regulation 4(9A) or 9(4)(aa) applies who does not carry with him in the vehicle he is driving evidence as specified in paragraph (2A) of the Swiss initial CPC he holds is guilty of an offence. ; and

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

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.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 2(10)(g)?

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 does not carry with him in the vehicle he is driving evidence as specified in paragraph (2A) of the Swiss initial CPC he holds.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Vehicle Drivers (Certificates of Professional Competence) (Amendment) Regulations 2020.

Penalty

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

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
29 June 2020
In force from
22 July 2020
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.

Directive 2003/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council provides for the initial qualification and periodic training of drivers of certain goods vehicles and passenger vehicles. This Directive was transposed by the Vehicle Drivers (Certificates of Professional Competence) Regulations 2007 (“the 2007 Regulations”), which applies throughout the United Kingdom. This instrument amends the 2007 Regulations to transpose amendments to the Directive and provide for the recognition of Swiss Certificates of Professional Competence. In particular— a an explicit exclusion from the requirement to hold a Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) is provided for ambulance drivers (regulation 2(2)(c) and (4)(a)); b existing exclusions are clarified – for example, the exclusion for emergencies/rescue missions includes the non-commercial transport of humanitarian aid (regulation 2(4)); c an exclusion is introduced for vehicles used by agricultural, horticultural, forestry, farming or fishery undertakings and driven by a person other than a professional driver (regulation 2(4)(f) and (g)); d certain outdated references are replaced – for example, regulation 11(2) of the 2007 Regulations refers to a “driver’s certificate”, which is now known as a “driver attestation” (regulation 2(10)(d)); e provisions to provide for the recognition of Swiss equivalents to the CPC, initial training and periodic training are introduced, including— i requiring the competent authority to publish which documents and training will be recognised as equivalent; ii allowing for a combination of UK or EU and Swiss training hours to be taken into account when determining if the minimum training has been completed; iii excluding the holders of equivalent Swiss qualifications from liability for driving a vehicle without a UK or EU CPC (regulation 2(3) and (5) to (11)); f consequential amendments relating to the above changes are made (regulation 3). A full Impact Assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it is not expected to have significant impact on the private, public or voluntary sectors. An Explanatory Memorandum and a transposition note have been prepared for these Regulations and are available alongside this instrument on the UK Legislation website at www.legislation.gov.uk.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this became law

This instrument became law without a debate or a vote. Under the negative procedure it took effect unless a motion to stop it succeeded, and none was tabled.

Neither House could have amended it. A statutory instrument is put to each House as a whole thing, to be approved or not; the Houses can reject an instrument or record their regret, but they cannot change a word of it. That is the constitutional position for every offence on this site.

The full procedural history →

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