53. Any applicant granted access rights under these regulations shall, if and to the extent that it would not, apart from this regulation, have statutory authority to run trains over any track in exercise of such rights, be taken to have statutory authority to do so.
54.—(1) Any obligation which a person owes under or arising from these regulations is a duty owed to any person who may be affected by a breach of that obligation and is actionable by any such person who sustains loss, damage or injury caused by the breach at the suit or instance of that person.
(2) In any proceedings brought against the infrastructure manager, railway undertaking, charging body, service provider, allocation body or applicant under paragraph (1), it is a defence for it to prove that it took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid the breach of duty.
(3) Without prejudice to the right, which any person may have by virtue of paragraph (1) to bring civil proceedings in respect of any breach of duty, the obligation to comply shall be enforceable by civil proceedings by the Office of Rail and Road in the case of their functions under these Regulations or by the Department, in the case of their functions under regulation 6(11) for an injunction or any other relief.
55.—(1) If any person, in giving any information or making any application under or for the purposes of any provision of these regulations, makes any statement which that person knows to be false in a material particular, or recklessly makes any statement which is false in a material particular, that person is guilty of an offence and liable—
(a)on summary conviction, to fine not exceeding the statutory maximum;
(b)on conviction on indictment, to a fine.
(2) No proceedings shall be instituted in Northern Ireland in respect of an offence under this regulation except by or with the consent of the Department or the Director of Public Prosecutions.
56. For the purposes of these regulations section 20(2) of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(1) applies with the omission of the words “the liability of whose members is limited” and where the affairs of the body corporate are managed by its members, applies in relation to the acts or defaults of a member in connection with his functions of management as if he were a director of the body corporate.
57.—(1) For the purpose of determining whether a breach of the duty imposed by regulation 9 has occurred, it is immaterial that the relevant acts or omissions occurred outside the United Kingdom if, when they occurred, the person—
(a)was a United Kingdom national; or
(b)was a body incorporated under the law of any part of the United Kingdom; or
(c)was a person (other than a United Kingdom national or such a body) maintaining a place of business in the United Kingdom.
(2) In this regulation “United Kingdom national” means an individual who is—
(a)a British citizen, a British Dependent Territories citizen, a British National (Overseas) or a British Overseas citizen;
(b)a person who under the British Nationality Act 1981(2) is a British subject; or
(c)a British protected person (within the meaning of that Act).
58. The Railways Infrastructure Railways Infrastructure (Access, Management and Licensing of Railway Undertakings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005(3) are hereby revoked.