Vehicles (Excise) Act 1971

17 Surrender of licences

(1) The holder of a licence (other than a licence for a tramcar)—

(a) may at any time surrender the licence to the Secretary of State in the prescribed manner; and

(b) shall on so surrendering the licence be entitled, if he satisfies the prescribed requirements and subject to the following provisions of this section, to receive from the Secretary of State, by way of rebate of duty paid upon the surrendered licence, a sum equal to the relevant amount multiplied by the number of days in the relevant period:

Provided that no sum shall be payable under this subsection in a case where the relevant period is less than thirty days.

(2) In this section " the relevant amount", in relation to a surrendered licence, means one three-hundred-and-sixty-fifth of the annual rate by reference to which duty was charged upon the licence and " the relevant period", in relation to a surrendered licence, means the period beginning with the day following that on which the licence is received by the Secretary of State in pursuance of paragraph (a) of subsection (1) above and ending with the day on which the licence would have expired by the effluxion of time.

The Secretary of State may, for the purposes of this subsection, treat a surrendered licence delivered to him by post as received by him on the day on which it was posted.

(3) If during the currency of a temporary licence issued in pursuance of an application for a vehicle licence for any period, the temporary licence is surrendered under this section, it shall be treated for the purposes of this section as issued for that period or, if the Secretary of State so directs but subject to subsection (4) below, for any other period specified in the direction being a period for which by virtue of section 10(5) of this Act a vehicle licence could be issued in pursuance of the application; and where a further vehicle licence issued in pursuance of the application is held by any person at the time of the surrender of the temporary licence or is received by him thereafter—

(a) the further licence shall cease to be in force and he shall forthwith return it to the Secretary of State and shall, if he knowingly fails to do so, be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £50 ; and

(b) if the Secretary of State considers that there has been undue delay in complying with paragraph (a) above he may, without prejudice to any liability under that paragraph, reduce the relevant period by such number of days as he thinks fit for the purpose of calculating the sum payable in pursuance of subsection (1) above in respect of the surrendered temporary licence.

(4) A person who in pursuance of this section is paid a sum which was calculated by reference to a period specified in a direction under subsection (3) above may appeal to the county court, or in Scotland by way of summary application to the sheriff, on the ground that the Secretary of State was not authorised by that subsection to give the direction.