Directive 2007/59/EC of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

CHAPTER VI U.K. TRAINING AND EXAMINATION OF DRIVERS

Article 23 U.K. Training

1. The training of drivers shall include a part relating to the licence and reflecting general professional knowledge as described in Annex IV, and a part relating to the certificate and reflecting specific professional knowledge, as described in Annexes V and VI.

2. The training method shall satisfy the criteria laid down in Annex III.

3. The detailed training objectives are defined in Annex IV for the licence, and in Annexes V and VI for the certificate. These detailed training objectives may be supplemented by either:

(a)

the relevant TSIs adopted in accordance with Directive 96/48/EC or Directive 2001/16/EC. In this case, the Commission shall ensure consistency between the TSIs and Annexes IV, V and VI; or

(b)

the criteria proposed by the Agency pursuant to Article 17 of Regulation (EC) No 881/2004. These criteria, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Directive by supplementing it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 32(3).

4. Pursuant to Article 13 of Directive 2004/49/EC, Member States shall take steps to ensure that candidate drivers have fair and non-discriminatory access to the training needed to fulfil the conditions for obtaining the licence and the certificate.

5. Training tasks relating to general professional knowledge as provided for in Article 11(4), linguistic knowledge as provided for in Article 12 and professional knowledge relating to rolling stock as provided for in Article 13(1) shall be performed by persons or bodies accredited or recognised in accordance with Article 20.

6. Training tasks relating to infrastructure knowledge as provided for in Article 13(2), including route knowledge and operating rules and procedures, shall be performed by persons or bodies accredited or recognised by the Member State where the infrastructure is located.

7. With regard to licences, the general system for the recognition of professional qualifications established by Directive 2005/36/EC shall continue to apply to the recognition of the professional qualifications of drivers who are nationals of a Member State and have obtained their training certificate in a third country.

8. A process of continuous training shall be set up in order to ensure that staff competences are maintained, in accordance with point 2(e) of Annex III to Directive 2004/49/EC.

Article 24 U.K. Cost of training

1. Member States shall ensure that the necessary measures are taken in order to ensure that investments made by a railway undertaking or an infrastructure manager for the training of a driver do not unduly benefit another railway undertaking or infrastructure manager in the case where that driver voluntarily leaves the former for the latter railway undertaking or infrastructure manager.

2. Particular attention shall be paid to the implementation of this Article in the report provided for in Article 33, in particular as regards point (f) thereof.

Article 25 U.K. Examinations

1. The examinations and examiners intended for the purpose of checking the requisite qualifications shall be determined:

(a)

for the part relating to the licence: by the competent authority when laying down the procedure to be followed to obtain a licence in accordance with Article 14(1);

(b)

for the part relating to the certificate: by the railway undertaking or the infrastructure manager when laying down the procedure to be followed to obtain a certificate in accordance with Article 15.

2. The examinations referred to in paragraph 1 shall be overseen by competent examiners, accredited or recognised in accordance with Article 20, and shall be organised in such a way as to avoid any conflict of interest.

3. Infrastructure knowledge evaluation, including route knowledge and operation rules, shall be performed by persons or bodies accredited or recognised by the Member State where the infrastructure is located.

4. The examinations referred to in paragraph 1 shall be organised in such a way that any conflict of interests is avoided, without prejudice to the possibility that the examiner may belong to the railway undertaking or infrastructure manager issuing the certificate.

5. The choice of examiners and examinations may be subject to Community criteria established on the basis of a draft prepared by the Agency. These measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Directive by supplementing it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 32(3). On imperative grounds of urgency, the Commission may have recourse to the urgency procedure referred to in Article 32(4).

In the absence of such Community criteria, the competent authorities shall establish national criteria.

6. There shall be theoretical and practical examinations at the end of the training course. Driving ability shall be assessed during driving tests on the network. Simulators may also be used for examining the application of operational rules and driver performance in particularly difficult situations.