The Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Regulations 1996

Applications for the grant of licences: general

8.—(1) The licensing authority may consider an application for the grant of a licence before the date on which the grant of the licence is to take effect if the application is received by him—

(a) in the case of an application for a Group 2 licence, during the period of three months ending on that date,

(b) in any other case, during the period of two months ending on that date,

and may during such period grant the licence so that it takes effect on that date.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1A)(b) of section 89 of the Traffic Act the holder of an exchangeable licence satisfies the relevant residence requirement if he has been normally resident in Great Britain for a period of not more than five years.

(3) An applicant for a licence who before the licence is granted is required to satisfy the licensing authority that he has passed a test shall at the time when he applies for the licence deliver to the licensing authority, in support of that application—

(a) a valid certificate furnished under regulation 45(1)(a), or

(b) a certificate corresponding to the certificate mentioned in paragraph (a) furnished under the law of Northern Ireland or Gibraltar, or

(c) where paragraph (2) of regulation 38 applies, certificates furnished under regulations 44(2)(a) and 45(2) which are valid in accordance with regulation 38(3), or

(d) certificates corresponding to the certificates mentioned in paragraph (c) furnished under the law of Northern Ireland.

(4) A person may not present a certificate in support of an application as evidence that he has passed—

(a) a test, a theory test or a practical test, or

(b) a test corresponding to any of those tests conducted under the law of Northern Ireland,

if the applicant took the test in respect of which the certificate was issued at a time when he was ineligible, by virtue of an enactment contained in the Traffic Act or these Regulations or a corresponding provision of the law of Northern Ireland, to take the test to which the certificate relates.

(5) An applicant for a Group 2 licence (as defined in regulation 65) shall, if required to do so by the licensing authority, send in support of his application a report (in such form as the licensing authority may require) signed by a qualified medical practitioner, prepared and dated not more than four months prior to the date on which the licence is to take effect, for the purpose of satisfying the licensing authority that he is not suffering from a relevant or prospective disability.

(6) In this regulation, “Group 2 licence” has the meaning given in regulation 65.