The Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Recording Equipment) Regulations 1979

Installation and use of recording equipment U.K.

2.—(1) For section 97 of the Act of 1968 (installation and use of recording equipment) there shall be substituted the following sections—

“Installation and use of recording equipment

97.— (1) If a person uses, or causes or permits to be used, a vehicle to which this section applies and—

(a) there is not in the vehicle recording equipment which has been installed in accordance with the Community Recording Equipment Regulation and which complies with the requirements of Annexes I and II to that Regulation; or

(b) recording equipment which has been installed in the vehicle in accordance with that Regulation and which complies with those requirements is not used as provided by Articles 15 to 17 of that Regulation,

he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £200.

(2) A person shall not be liable to be convicted under subsection (1) of this section if he proves to the court that the vehicle in question was proceeding to a place where recording equipment which would comply with the requirements of Annexes I and II of the Community Recording Equipment Regulation was to be installed in the vehicle in accordance with that Regulation.

(3) A person shall not be liable to be convicted under subsection (1) of this section by reason of the recording equipment installed in the vehicle in question not being in working order if he proves to the court that—

(a) it had not become reasonably practicable for the equipment to be repaired by an approved fitter or workshop; and

(b) the requirements of Article 18(2) of the Community Recording Equipment Regulation were being complied with.

(4) A person shall not be liable to be convicted under subsection (1) of this section by reason of any seal on the recording equipment installed in the vehicle in question not being intact if he proves to the court that—

(a) the breaking or removal of the seal could not have been avoided;

(b) it had not become reasonably practicable for the seal to be replaced by an approved fitter or workshop; and

(c) in all other respects the equipment was being used as provided by Articles 15 to 17 of the Community Recording Equipment Regulation.

(5) For the purposes of this section recording equipment is used as provided by Articles 15 to 17 of the Community Recording Equipment Regulation if, and only if, the circumstances of its use are such that each requirement of those Articles is complied with.

(6) This section applies at any time to any vehicle to which this Part of this Act applies if, at that time, Article 3 of the Community Recording Equipment Regulation requires recording equipment to be installed and used in that vehicle; and in this section and sections 97A and 97B of this Act any expression which is also used in that Regulation has the same meaning as in that Regulation.

(7) In this Part of this Act—

“the Community Recording Equipment Regulation” means Council Regulation (EEC) No. 1463/70 of 20th July 1970 on the introduction of recording equipment in road transport, as amended by Council Regulations (EEC) Nos. 1787/73 and 2828/77, and as read with the Community Road Transport Rules (Exemptions) Regulations 1978;

“recording equipment” means equipment for recording information as to the use of a vehicle.

Provisions supplementary to section 97

97A.— (1) If an employed crew member of a vehicle to which section 97 of this Act applies fails—

(a) without reasonable excuse to return any record sheet which relates to him to his employer within twenty-one days of completing it; or

(b) where he has two or more employers by whom he is employed as a crew member of such a vehicle, to notify each of them of the name and address of the other or others of them,

he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £200.

(2) If the employer of crew members of a vehicle to which section 97 of this Act applies fails without reasonable excuse to secure that they comply with subsection (1)(a) of this section, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £200.

(3) Where a crew member of a vehicle to which section 97 of this Act applies has two or more employers by whom he is employed as a crew member of such a vehicle, subsection (1)(a) and subsection (2) of this section shall apply as if any reference to his employer, or any reference which is to be construed as such a reference, were a reference to such of those employers as was the first to employ him in that capacity.

Records etc. produced by equipment may be used in evidence

97B.— (1) Where recording equipment is installed in a vehicle to which this Part of this Act applies, any record produced by means of the equipment shall, in any proceedings under this Part of this Act, be evidence, and in Scotland sufficient evidence, of the matters appearing from the record.

(2) Any entry made on a record sheet by a crew member for the purposes of Article 17(2) or (3) or 18(2) of the Community Recording Equipment Regulation shall, in any proceedings under this Part of this Act, be evidence, and in Scotland sufficient evidence, of the matters appearing from that entry.”.

F1 (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

F1 (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

F1 (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Textual Amendments

F1 Reg. 2(2)-(4) revoked (13.3.1984) by The Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Recording Equipment) (Amendment) Regulations 1984 (S.I. 1984/144), regs. 1, 2(3)

Commencement Information

I1 Reg. 2 in force at 14.1.1980, see reg. 1(1)