The Motor Vehicles (International Motor Insurance Card) Regulations 1971

Title and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Motor Vehicles (International Motor Insurance Card) Regulations 1971 and shall come into operation on the 10th June 1971.

Revocation

2.  The Motor Vehicles (International Motor Insurance Card) Regulations 1969(1) are hereby revoked.

Interpretation

3.—(1) In these Regulations—

“the Act” means the Road Traffic Act 1960;

“authorised insurer” has the same meaning as in Part VI of the Act;

“British Bureau” means the Motor Insurers' Bureau incorporated under the Companies Act 1929, and having its registered office at Aldermary House, Queen Street, London, E.C.4;

“chief officer of police”, and “police area”, in relation to England and Wales, have the same meanings as in the Police Act 1964, and, in relation to Scotland, have the same meanings as in the Police (Scotland) Act 1967;

“Foreign Bureau” means a central organisation set up by motor insurers in any country outside the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands for the purpose of giving effect to international arrangements for the insurance of motorists against third-party risks when entering countries where insurance against such risks is compulsory, and with which organisation the British Bureau has entered into such an arrangement;

“hired motor vehicle” means a motor vehicle which is:—

(a)

designed for private use and with seats for not more than eight persons excluding the driver, and

(b)

specified in an insurance card, and

(c)

last brought into Great Britain by a person making only a temporary stay therein, and

(d)

owned and let for hire by a person whose business includes the letting of vehicles for hire and whose principal place of business is outside the United Kingdom;

“hiring visitor” means a person to whom a hired motor vehicle is let on hire, who is making only a temporary stay in Great Britain and is named as the insured or user of that vehicle in the insurance card in which that vehicle is specified;

“insurance card” means an international motor insurance card issued under the authority of a Foreign Bureau or of the British Bureau which is green in colour and—

(a)

comprises two pages either in English or a foreign language containing the particulars specified in the page marked “original” and in the middle page set out in Part I of Schedule 1 to these Regulations and which in the case of each entry into the United Kingdom from a country outside thereof of the motor vehicle specified in the card during the period of validity so specified has attached thereto one or more pages green in colour and, either in English or a foreign language, containing the particulars specified in Part II of the said Schedule, each of which said pages is hereinafter referred to as a “duplicate page”; or

(b)

until the 31st December 1977, is either in English or a foreign language in the form specified in Part I of Schedule 2 to these Regulations and which in the case of each entry into the United Kingdom from a country outside thereof of the motor vehicle specified in the card during the period of validity so specified has attached thereto one or more pages green in colour and, either in English or a foreign language, in the form specified in Part II of the said Schedule, each of which said pages is hereinafter referred to as a “duplicate page”;

“the Secretary of State” means the Secretary of State for the Environment;

“trade licence” has the same meaning as in the Vehicles (Excise) Act 1971;

“visitor” means a person bringing a motor vehicle into Great Britain, making only a temporary stay therein and named in an insurance card as the insured or user of the vehicle, and includes a hiring visitor who brings a hired motor vehicle into Great Britain, but no other hiring visitor.

(2) Any reference in these Regulations to any provision in an Act of Parliament or in subordinate legislation shall be construed as a reference to that provision as amended by any other such provision.

(3) The Interpretation Act 1889 shall apply for the interpretation of these Regulations as it applies for the interpretation of an Act of Parliament and as if for the purposes of section 38 of that Act these Regulations were an Act of Parliament and the Regulations revoked by Regulation 2 of these Regulations were an Act of Parliament thereby repealed.

Validity of insurance card

4.—(1) An insurance card shall be valid for the purposes of these Regulations only if—

(a) the motor vehicle specified in the card is brought into the United Kingdom during the period of validity so specified;

(b) the application of the card in Great Britain is indicated thereon;

(c) all relevant information provided for in the card has been inscribed therein;

(d) the card has been duly signed by the visitor, by the insurer named in the card and, in the case of a hired motor vehicle, by every hiring visitor who is named in the card as the insured or user thereof; and

(e) in the case of a card in the form of Part I of Schedule 2 to these Regulations, the card bears on page 1 thereof the name of the Foreign Bureau or the British Bureau, as the case may be, under whose authority the card was issued.

(2) The information required to be inscribed in paragraphs 2, 7 and 8 in the page of the card shown in Schedule 1 to these Regulations and marked “original” and in paragraphs 2, 3 and 8 on page 3 of the card in the form in Schedule 2 to these Regulations is:—

(a) in the said paragraph 2, the name of the Foreign Bureau or the British Bureau, as the case may be, under whose authority the card was issued; and

(b) in the said paragraph 3 or 7, the name and address of the insured visitor and of every person who is, as respects a hired motor vehicle, a hiring visitor; and

(c) in the said paragraph 8, the name and address of the insurer authorised to issue the card by the Foreign Bureau or the British Bureau, as the case may be, and by whom the card was issued.

Third-party risks arising out of the use of motor vehicles by visitors

5.—(1) As respects the use on a road of a motor vehicle specified in a valid insurance card, being use by the visitor to whom the card was issued, or by any hiring visitor named therein, or by any other person on the order or with the permission of the said visitor or of any such hiring visitor, section 201 of the Act shall have effect as though the said card were a policy of insurance complying with the requirements of and having effect for the purposes of Part VI of the Act in relation to such use;

Provided that where the said motor vehicle remains in the United Kingdom after the expiry of the period of validity specified in the card, then as respects any period whilst it so remains during which the vehicle is in Great Britain the said card shall not be regarded as having ceased to be in force for the purposes of the said section 201 by reason only of effluxion of the period of validity specified in the card.

For the purposes of this paragraph a motor vehicle shall be deemed not to have left the United Kingdom whilst it is only in transit between different parts of the United Kingdom.

(2) Any reference in this Regulation and in the next two following Regulations to the use on a road of a motor vehicle shall not include any use of the vehicle for the purpose of delivering it to or for the visitor at some place other than the place of entry of the vehicle into Great Britain, which is authorised under a trade licence.

6.—(1) For the purposes of sections 226, 230 and 231 of the Act, a valid insurance card shall have effect as though it were a certificate of insurance issued by an authorised insurer and in relation to any claim in respect of any such liability as is required to be covered by a policy of insurance under section 203 of the Act and arising out of the use on a road of a motor vehicle specified in such a card by the visitor to whom it was issued, by any hiring visitor named therein, or by any other person on the order or with the permission of the said visitor or of any such hiring visitor, the person against whom the claim is made shall in lieu of making the statement and giving the particulars referred to in section 209(1) of the Act, give to the person making the claim, on his demand, the serial letter or letters (if any) and serial number shown in the card, the name of the Bureau under whose authority it was issued and the name and address of the person specified therein as the insured.

(2) Any person making or intending to make any such claim as is mentioned in the preceding paragraph of this Regulation shall give notice of the claim in writing to the British Bureau as soon as practicable after the happening of the event out of which the claim arose specifying the nature of the claim and against whom it is made or intended to be made.

(3) Where owing to the presence on the road of a motor vehicle specified in an insurance card, an accident occurs involving personal injury to a person other than the driver of the vehicle, and by reason of section 226 or 230 of the Act, as modified by paragraph (1) of this Regulation, the insurance card, together with a duplicate page, is produced to a police constable or at a police station, that police constable or a police constable at that station may detach the duplicate page from the card and arrange for its retention for the purposes of recording or producing insurance particulars relating to the accident.

7.  In any civil proceedings in respect of any such liability as is required to be covered by a policy of insurance under section 203 of the Act and arising out of the use on a road of a motor vehicle specified in a valid insurance card, the production of the duplicate page detached by a police constable in pursuance of paragraph (3) of the last preceding Regulation shall be evidence that the person specified in the card as the insured has duly signed the form of authority specified in paragraph (3) on the middle page of the card shown in Schedule 1 to these Regulations or specified in paragraph (4) on page 4 of the card when in the form in Part I of Schedule 2 to these Regulations unless the contrary is proved.

Production of insurance card on application for excise licence

8.  Any visitor or hiring visitor applying for a licence under the Vehicles (Excise) Act 1971 for a motor vehicle specified in a valid insurance card in which he is named as the insured may, during the period of validity specified in the card, in lieu of producing to the licensing authority such evidence as is required by Regulation 9 of the Motor Vehicles (Third Party Risks) Regulations 1961(2), as amended(3), produce such a card to the licensing authority.

Requirements in connection with duplicate pages

9.  The chief officer of police of each police area shall without charge:—

(a) furnish to the Secretary of State, or the British Bureau on request or to an authorised insurer on request by the British Bureau any information relating to the contents of a duplicate page which may have been detached by a police constable under Regulation 6(3) of these Regulations in connection with an accident in that area; and

(b) forward to the British Bureau or to an authorised insurer on request by the British Bureau any such duplicate page and the British Bureau or the authorised insurer, as the case may be, shall as soon as practicable, return the duplicate page to the chief officer of police by whom it was forwarded.

Special provision for motor vehicles from Northern Ireland

10.  In the case of a motor vehicle brought from Northern Ireland into Great Britain by a person making only a temporary stay in Great Britain, a policy of insurance or a security which complies with the Road Traffic Act (Northern Ireland) 1970: and which covers the driving of the motor vehicle in Great Britain and any certificate of insurance or certificate of security issued in pursuance of that Act and the Regulations made thereunder in respect of such policy of security shall have effect as a policy of insurance or a security or a certificate of insurance or certificate of security respectively for the purposes of Part VI of the Act, and of the Motor Vehicles (Third Party Risks) Regulations 1961, as amended.

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State.10th May 1971.

John Peyton

Minister for Transport Industries

Department of the Environment