The Motor Vehicles (Driving Licenses) (Amendment) Regulations 1991

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These regulations amend the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licenses) Regulations 1987 to take account of the bringing into force on 1st April 1991 of sections 1(1) and 2(1) of the Roadf Traffic (Driver Licensing and Information Systems) Act 1989 by the Road Traffic (Driver Licensing and Information Systems) Act 1989 (Commencement No. 4) Order 1990 (S.I. 1990/2610). Those sections abolish the requirement for special licences for drivers of lorries and buses as heavy goods vehicles under Part IV of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and public service vehicles under section 22 of the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981 (c. 14) as an addition to the requirement for ordinary driving licences under Part III of the 1988 Act. They replace this by a unified system of licensing of such vehicles under Part II of the 1988 Act as large goods vehicles and passenger-carrying vehicles supplemented by a new Part IV of the 1988 Act set out in Schedule 2 to the 1989 Act.

The principal changes made by the Regulations are to—

(a) specify the period of normal residence during which an application may be made for a licence by the holder of an exchangeable licence (as defined in section 108 of the 1988 Act) (regulation 4);

(b) require licences and other documents produced by driving test candidates as evidence of identity to be signed by them (regulation 5);

(c) restrict the right of holders of ordinary driving licenses to drive passenger-carrying vehicles with more than sixteen seats in addition to the driver’s seat (regulations 6 and 7);

(d) replace the existing additional requirements 7 and 8 prescribed in Schedule 4 to the 1987 Regulations involving the use of reverse gear, as to which a person taking a driving test must satisfy the examiner in the case of a test for certain categories of motor vehicles with a single requirement for the carrying out of manoeuvres involving the use of reverse gear (regulations 8 and 9).