Acts of Parliament and Regulations placing restrictions and requirements
on people in the United Kingdom are churned out in large quantities at
Westminster and by Ministers every year.
For such legislation to be effective it has to be capable of being
enforced, and the usual way is by court action.
The first step in that process is the detection of offenders. So, when
making legislation, Parliament and Ministers have to provide for who is to
have powers to ensure the legislation is complied with and the nature and
extent of those powers.
For example, it would be no use having the law that a person who drives
a motor vehicle must hold a driving licence unless someone had power to
require the production of a driver's licence to ensure he had one. So the
person who can lawfully demand to see a driving licence has to be
specified in the law. Not only that, but to avoid unnecessary
infringements of everyone's liberty, the circumstances in which that
demand can be made have also to be defined. Consequently, if the demand is
made by a person who is not authorised - or it is made by an authorised
person but not in the defined circumstances - the demand can be ignored.
The same is true in other branches of the law. This chart specifies the
officials - such as the police or Vehicle examiners - who have legal
powers in relation to the operation of goods vehicles and describes the
circumstances and limitations on the exercise of those powers.
Drivers, transport managers and vehicle operators should be aware of
what these powers are (a) to avoid unwittingly breaking the law by failing
to comply with a requirement, (b) to know whether or not a person who
purports to have a power really has one and (c) whether the person has the
power to take a particular action in particular circumstances.
Police and other officials are well known for giving a person the
impression they have greater powers than they really have. Remember, they
are not the law but have to act within it like anyone else.
One of the first things a policeman or examiner of the Vehicle
Inspectorate (VI) does when talking to a driver or vehicle owner is to
request his name and address and production of various documents. This is
the law on these points.
- NAME & ADDRESS. A policeman or VI examiner can require a person
driving a motor vehicle on a road, or a person believed to have been the
driver at the time of an accident or traffic offence, to give his name
and address and that of the owner of the vehicle.
- DRIVING LICENCE. A policeman and a VI examiner can require (a) person
driving a motor vehicle on a road; (b) a person believed to have been
the driver at the time of an accident or traffc offence; and (c) a
person supervising a provisional licence holder in (a) or (b) to produce
his driving licence.
A policeman (only) can also require that person to give his date of
birth if he does not produce a driving licence or, if he does produce a
licence, he has suspicions about it, it has been tampered with or he
suspects a person accompanying a learner is under 21 years of age.
If a person does not produce his driving licence at the time it is a
defence, in the event of a prosecution, for him to show that (a) he
produced it within 7 days at a police station he specified; (b) he
produced it there as soon as was reasonably practicable, or (c) it was not
reasonably practicable for him to produce it there before proceedings were
commenced for not producing it.
If a driving licence has been revoked or obtained by a false statement a
constable or VI examiner can require its production,
- For the purpose of carrying out his authorised work, a traffic warden
can require a driver, or person believed to have been a driver, to give
his name and address if he has reasonable cause to believe an offence
has been committed (a) of parking without lights or reflectors, (b) by a
vehicle obstructing, waiting, parking, loading, or unloading, (c) of
failing to comply with a traffic sign or direction when engaged on
traffic regulation, (d) against the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act,
or (e) in relation to parking meter charges.
- A traffic warden can also require production of a driving licence (1
) if he has reasonable cause to believe an offence has been committed by
a vehicle being stopped on a pedestrian crossing or by a vehicle being
left on a road in a dangerous position or (2) where he is employed at a
car-pound and he has reasonable cause to believe that an offence has
been committed by the vehicle obstructing, waiting, being parked, loaded
or unloaded in a road.
- INSURANCE & TEST. A policeman or a VI examiner can require a
person driving a motor vehicle on a road, or a person believed to have
been the driver at the time of an accident or traffic offence, to
produce a certificate of insurance, test certificate and goods vehicle
plating certificate (if compulsory).
But a person will not be convicted of failing to produce a certificate
if he shows that (a) within 7 days the certificate was produced at a
police station he specified; (b) it was produced there as soon as was
reasonably practicable; or (c) it was not reasonably practicable for it
to be produced there before proceedings were commenced for not producing
it.
A traffic warden has no power to require production of
insurance or test certificates.
- DISCS & LOG BOOK. There is no power for police or VI examiners to
require production of a vehicle excise licence or operators licence
identity disc. If one has been issued it must, of course, be displayed
inside the vehicle's windscreen. The owner of a motor vehicle must
produce its registration book if required to do so, at any reasonable
time, by a police officer or person acting for the Secretary of State.
- OPERATOR'S LICENCE. Only the holder of the licence can be required to
produce it. The requirement can be made by police or a VI examiner. The
operator can produce it, within 14 days, at any operating centre covered
by the licence, his head office or principal place of business within
the traffic area or, if the request was made by police, at a police
station chosen by the licence holder.
- INTERNATIONAL WORK. A Community Authorisation is required for hire
and reward transport to, from or through another EC Member State. A
certified true copy of the authorisation must be carried on a vehicle
and be produced when required by police or a vehicle examiner.
- WASTE REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE. If a waste regulation official or a
policeman has a reasonable belief that controlled waste is, or has been,
transported in a vehicle by a person who is not a registered carrier he
can require the person to produce a certificate of registration (or
official copy of it), search the vehicle and take samples for test.
If the certificate or copy is not produced at the time, the person
concerned must, within 7 days, produce it at, or send it to, the
principal office of the waste regulation authority of the area in which
the check was made.
Waste transfer notes, required under the carriers' duty of care, do not
have to be produced by the vehicle driver.
A request that police and VI examiners are likely to make is to see a
driver's tachograph records or British record book.
The tachograph regulation - EC Regulation 3821/85 -states that whenever
requested by an authorised inspecting officer to do so, a driver must be
able to produce record sheets for the current week and the last day of the
previous week on which he drove a vehicle subject to EC hours' law.
(Carrying more records in the cab than the required minimum often lands
a driver and his employer in trouble when discrepancies are found on those
records)
An 'authorised inspecting officer' is not defined but will include
police and VI examiners because they are authorised under Section 99 of
the Transport Act 1968 to examine records.
Under Section 99 an officer (ie a policeman, a VI examiner or a person
authorised for the purpose by a Traffic Commissioner) may on production of
his authority if required (except that police in uniform do not have to
produce an authority), require any person to produce and permit him to
inspect and copy:
- a. any book or register which that person is required under Section
98 (ie record books for drivers on national work exempt the EC rules) to
carry or have in his possession;
- b. any book or register as in (a) which that person is required to
preserve;
- c. any record sheet the person is required under EC tachograph rules
to retain or be able to produce;
- d. if the person is the owner of a vehicle to which the hours' and
records' law applies, any other document which the official may
reasonably require to inspect to check that the Transport Act hours' and
records law is being complied with;
- e. any book, register or other document required to be kept by the EC
rules or which the officer may reasonably require to inspect to check
that the EC hours' and records rules are being complied with.
The officer can also require, by written notice, that any record sheet,
book, register or other document referred to above, shall be produced at
the office of the Traffic Commissioner by a specified time, but not within
10 days of the notice.
In acting under a. and e. above an officer can detain a vehicle during
the time required for inspecting and copying records, books, etc.
Section 99 states that an officer may at any time that is reasonable in
the circumstances, enter any premises on which he has reason to believe
that a goods vehicle is kept or any record sheet, books, registers or
other documents are to be found, and inspect any such vehicle and inspect
and copy any record sheet, book, register or any other document he finds
there.
Whilst the Act also provides that an officer can enter a vehicle to
inspect it and any tachograph or record sheet the Order that brought
Section 99 into force in March 1970 specifically excluded that provision
so it is not in force.
Frequently police and examiners take possession of tachograph records
and their right to do so is often questioned.
Section 99(6) gives an officer power to seize any record sheet which he
has reasonable cause to believe is false or has been altered with intent
to deceive.
An examiner has no legal power to take, from a driver, record sheets
simply because they reveal an hours' or tachograph offence. However, under
Section 19(2) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 a police
officer who is lawfully on premises (including a place or vehicle) has
power to seize anything which is on the premises if he has reasonable
grounds for believing that (a) it is evidence in relation to an offence
which he is investigating or any other offence and (b) it is necessary to
seize it in order to prevent the evidence being concealed, lost, altered
or destroyed. Ministry examiners do not have this power.
A driver who is subject to the British records' regulation must have his
current record book in his possession at all times when he is on duty. The
above rules on seizure also apply to the British driver's record book.
The law provides three broad powers under which VI examiners can inspect
vehicles for roadworthiness. Some of these powers also apply to depend on
whether the policeman is authorised and whether or not the vehicle is on a
road.
1. The law which a VI examiner will usually work under is Section 68 of
the Road Tragic Act 1988 because it gives him power to inspect, at any
time and whether on a not or not, a goods vehicle, public service vehicle
or a vehicle for more than eight passengers. He can detain the vehicle
while he does the inspection. Also, at any reasonable time, he can enter
premises to inspect such a vehicle. A Vl's power to inspect a vehicle
includes power to test and drive it.
2. Along with authorised policemen he also has power, under Section 67
of that Act, to inspect any vehicle on a road to ensure that it complies
with Construction and Use requirements and will not be a danger. The
police power under Section 67 only applies to officers authorised by their
chief constable to examine vehicles. Not all police have that authority.
For the purpose of testing a vehicle under section 67, a policeman or a VI
examiner can require the driver to comply with reasonable instructions
(eg. applying the brakes or turning the steering wheel) and he may drive
the vehicle.
Peculiar to Section 67 is a provision which says a driver can elect for
a deferred test, except in a case of an accident involving the vehicle or
if the policeman considers the vehicle is too defective to proceed.
The deferred test procedure is in Schedule 2 of the Act which says that
if the driver is the owner of the vehicle he can specify a period of seven
days in the next 30 days when the test can be done and the premises or
area where it can he carried out. If the driver is not the owner he has to
name the owner who must be given the same opportunity of nominating a time
and place. The vehicle owner has to be given at least two days notice of
precisely when, in the seven-day period, the test will be made.
It is an offence to obstruct an examiner testing a vehicle under
Section 67, to fail to comply with a requirement or with Schedule 2.
3. Regulation 74 of the Rood Vehicles (Construction and Use)
Regulations 1986 gives power to VI examiner and police to inspect a
vehicle on the road. The policeman does not have to be authorised. But,
under this regulation, (a) the consent of the owner of the premises must
first be obtained and (b) the owner of the vehicle must consent, be given
48 hours notice of the inspection or it must be within 48 hours of a
notifiable accident.
In addition to the above, both a VI examiner and a policeman in uniform
can require the driver of a goods vehicle, which is stationary on a road,
to take it to a place up to five miles away for examination under Section
68. In practice, the 'place' will normally be an HGV testing station but
it could be anywhere where a test can be carried out. In relation to
vehicle sales, a VI examiner or policeman authorised under section 67 can,
at any reasonable time, enter premises where used vehicles are sold,
supplied or offered for sale or supply, exposed or kept for sale, to
ascertain whether they are in an unroadworthy condition.
- VEHICLE WEIGHING
Only authorised persons can require a vehicle to be weighed and they
are police, VI examiners and people authorised by a highway authority
(usually trading standards officials).
The power, in Section 78 of the Road Traffc Act 1988, is subject to the
person producing his authority at the time of the request. Consequently,
even police in uniform must produce their written authority to require
the vehicle to be weighed. Not all police are authorised.
The driver can be directed to any weighbridge regardless of how far
away it is. But if the distance is over five miles and the vehicle is
not overweight, the highway authority must pay for any loss suffered by
the driver and operator.
If a dynamic axle-weighing machine is used the driver of the vehicle
must drive over the machine in accordance with directions given by the
person doing the weighing.
When a vehicle has been weighed the driver must be given a certificate
of weight whether the vehicle is overloaded or not, The certificate
exempts the vehicle from being weighed again on the same journey with
the same load.
A person in charge of a vehicle commits an offence if he refuses or
fails to comply with a weighing requirement or if he obstructs an
authorised person weighing the vehicle. But it is unlawful for the
authorised person to require or allow a vehicle to be unloaded for the
purpose of being weighed.
Whenever a vehicle is weighed the driver should keep a note of how the
weighing was done because, if found to be overweight, it might be that
the person doing the weighing did not follow the correct procedure.
- PROHIBITIONS
Vehicles can be prohibited if they are unroadworthy or overweight or if
they are used by foreign-based operators in contravention of UK
legislation.
If a mechanical examination shows up defects which make the vehicle
unfit for service - or likely to become unfit for service - a VI
examiner can prohibit the driving of the vehicle on a road.
If it appears to an authorised policeman that, owing to defects in the
vehicle, driving it would involve a danger of injury to any person he
can prohibit the driving of the vehicle on a road.
If that action is taken, the person in charge of the vehicle must be
given a written notice of the prohibition which sets out the defects,
states its scope and when it comes into force. The holder of the
vehicle's operator's licence or, if not authorised on an 'O' licence,
the vehicle's owner, must be notified of the prohibition as soon as
reasonably practicable.
A prohibition imposed by an authorised policeman comes into force as
soon as the prohibition notice has been given. But a prohibition imposed
by a VI examiner takes effect immediately only if he considers the
driving of the vehicle would involve a danger of injury to anyone. A
prohibition which does not come into force immediately will come into a
force on a date specified by the VI examiner but not later than 10 days
after it was imposed.
An exemption from a prohibition can be issued to enable the vehicle to
reach a place for repair or elsewhere and it can be made subject to
conditions regarding maximum speed, load carried, etc. But it should be
noted that the exemption is only from the effect of the prohibition and
is not an immunity from prosecution for any defects on the vehicle.
If the vehicle is subject to plating and testing, the person imposing a
prohibition can also direct that it is irremovable until the vehicle has
been inspected at an official testing station.
If the vehicle is subject to an annual MoT test - or would be if it was
three years old - a prohibition can be made irremovable until the
vehicle has had an MoT test.
A prohibition imposed for overloading can be issued by those persons
authorised to weigh a vehicle where (a) a Construction and Use weight
limit for the vehicle is exceeded or (b) due to excessive gross or axle
weight the vehicle would involve a danger to any person. Notice that in
(b) the vehicle does not have to exceed a C. & U. limit.
This type of prohibition can include a direction that the vehicle be
moved to another place - such as for off loading - and the prohibition
does not apply to that movement. Failing to comply with the direction
within a reasonable time is an offence.
The prohibition lasts until the weight had been reduced to the legal
limit and an official notice has been given that the vehicle can
proceed. The notice can be withheld until the vehicle has been
re-weighed.
VI examiners have strong prohibition powers, under the Road Traffic
(Foreign Vehicles) Act 1972, in relation to vehicles, not registered in
the United Kingdom and which are brought into Great Britain from a base
abroad. Vehicles can be prohibited for contraventions of C. & U.
Regulations; drivers hours' and tachograph regulations; operators'
licensing provisions; and obstructing an examiner.
- DANGEROUS GOODS The driver of a tanker or vehicle carrying a tank
container used for the transport of a dangerous substance must, when
requested by police or a vehicle examiner, produce documents which are
required to be carried on the vehicle and give any other information
about the identity and quantity of the substance carried.
The documents required to be carried are written information about the
identity of the substance, the quantity carried, the hazards which could
arise and the action to be taken in emergency. The driver must ensure
these documents are kept in the vehicle cab and are readily available
while the substance is being carried. A driver must also ensure that
hazard warning panels are displayed.
The above rules also apply to the driver of a vehicle used for carrying
dangerous substances in packages.
When a driver is engaged in the carriage of dangerous goods for which a
certificate of training is required, he must carry the certificate with
him and produce it when requested by police or a vehicle examiner.