Road Traffic Act 1962

Driving instruction, minimum age and test fees

23 Approved driving instructors

(1) There shall be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament any expenses incurred by the Minister in connection with any arrangements made by him for compiling and maintaining a register of persons approved by him as qualified to give instruction in the driving of motor vehicles (in this section referred to as the register of approved instructors).

(2) The Minister may charge such fees as he thinks proper in connection with applications for registration in the register of approved instructors and in connection with any examination or test required to be taken as a condition of approval or continuation of approval for the purposes of such registration; and any sums received by the Minister on account of such fees shall be paid into the Exchequer.

(3) The Minister may make regulations prescribing an official title or description for use by persons registered in the register of approved instructors, and a form of badge or certificate which may be worn or displayed by such persons; and if any person—

(a) not being registered in the said register, takes or uses a title or description so prescribed, or wears or displays a badge or certificate so prescribed, or takes or uses any name, tide, addition or description implying that he is so registered; or

(b) being a person carrying on business in the provision of instruction in the driving of motor vehicles, uses a tide or description so prescribed in relation to any person employed by him who is not so registered, or issues any advertisement or invitation calculated to mislead with respect to the extent to which persons so registered are employed by him,

he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds:

Provided that in proceedings against any person for an offence under paragraph (a) of this subsection or an offence under paragraph (b) of this subsection in relation to a person employed by him, it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove that he did not know, and had no reasonable cause to believe, that he or, as the case may be, the person employed by him, was not registered in the register of approved instructors at the material time.

(4) Where an offence under this section committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

24 Minimum age for driving certain motor vehicles

At the end of section ninety-seven of the principal Act (which relates to the minimum age for driving motor vehicles on roads) there shall be added the following subsection—

“(3) Regulations may provide—

(a) that the age under which a person may not drive on a road a motor car constructed as mentioned in subsection (9) of section two hundred and fifty-three of this Act shall, if the motor car is of a description specified in the regulations, and is driven with a trailer attached to it in the manner mentioned in that subsection, be twenty-one instead of seventeen;

(b) that the age under which a person may not drive on a road a tractor used primarily for work on land in connection with agriculture shall, if the tractor is of a description specified in the regulations and is driven in circumstances so specified, be sixteen instead of seventeen;

(c) that the age under which a person may not drive on a road a road roller falling within paragraph 4 of the Table set out in subsection (1) of this section shall, if the roller is of a description specified in the regulations and is driven in circumstances so specified, be seventeen instead of twenty-one;

but—

(i) a person shall not be prohibited by virtue of regulations under paragraph (a) of this subsection from driving a motor car of any description if at any time before the coming into force of the regulations he has held, or was entitled (on making the requisite application and declaration and on payment of the appropriate fee) to the grant of, a licence, other than a provisional licence, authorising him to drive that description of motor car; and

(ii) a person under the age of seventeen who has not passed the prescribed test of competence to drive such a tractor as is mentioned in paragraph (b) of this subsection shall not be authorised by regulations made under that paragraph to drive such a tractor on a road except while taking, proceeding to or returning from such a test.”

25 Test fees

(1) Regulations made for the purposes of paragraph (b) of subsection (2) of section ninety-nine of the principal Act (which relates to the payment of fees in respect of tests of competence to drive) may require the fee to be paid upon application for an appointment for a test; and so much of that paragraph as limits the amount of the fee shall cease to have effect.

(2) A fee paid in pursuance of regulations made under the said subsection (2) on application for an appointment for a test may be repaid in the following cases and not otherwise, that is to say:—

(a) if no such appointment is made, or an appointment made is subsequently cancelled by or on behalf of the Minister;

(b) if the person for whom the appointment is made gives such notice cancelling the appointment as may be prescribed for the purposes of this paragraph by regulations made as aforesaid ;

(c) if the person for whom the appointment is made keeps the appointment, but the test does not take place, or is not completed, for reasons attributable neither to him nor to any vehicle provided by him for the purposes of the test; or

(d) if an order for the repayment of the fee is made by the court under subsection (3) of the said section ninety-nine pursuant to a finding that the test was not properly conducted in accordance with the regulations.