The Community Drivers’ Hours (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) (Temporary Exception) (No. 2) Regulations 2001

Statutory Instruments

2001 No. 1293

ROAD TRAFFIC

The Community Drivers’ Hours (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) (Temporary Exception) (No. 2) Regulations 2001

Made

30th March 2001

Laid before Parliament

2nd April 2001

Coming into force

5th April 2001

The Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, being a Minister designatedM1 for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972M2 in relation to the regulation and supervision of working conditions of persons engaged in road transport, in exercise of the powers conferred by that section and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, hereby makes the following Regulations:

Marginal Citations

M1 S.I. 1975/1707.

M2 1972 c. 68.

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Community Drivers’ Hours (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) (Temporary Exception) (No. 2) Regulations 2001 and shall come into force on 5th April 2001.

2.  In these Regulations—

• “agricultural product" means products of—

  (a)

  the soil;

  (b)

  dairy farming;

  (c)

  the breeding and keeping of livestock, and

  (d)

  poultry farming,

  and products of first-stage processing directly relating to such products;

• “agricultural purpose" includes horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming and livestock breeding and keeping, the use of land as grazing land and meadow land, and the use of land for woodlands where that use is ancillary to the farming of land for other agricultural purposes;

• “farm" means land which is occupied for agricultural purposes, including any dwelling-house or other building occupied by the same person for the purpose of farming the land;

• “feeding stuff" means—

  (a)

  a product of vegetable or animal origin in its natural state (whether fresh or preserved);

  (b)

  a product derived from the industrial processing of such a product; or

  (c)

  an organic or inorganic substance, used singly or in a mixture (and whether or not containing additives);

  for oral feeding to animals which, or kinds of which, are in particular kept for the production of food, skins or fur or for the purpose of their use in the farming of land;

• “fertiliser" means a fertiliser used for the cultivation of crops or plants of any description, including trees;

• “fuel" includes any substances used as a source of heat or power;

• “grain" includes wheat, maize, oats, rye, barley, rice, pulses, seeds and processed forms thereof;

• “livestock" includes cattle, horses, asses, mules, hinnies, sheep, pigs, goats, poultry, deer and, while in captivity, pheasants, partridges and grouse;

• “machinery" includes:

  (i)

  digging machines;

  (ii)

  mobile cranes;

  (iii)

  generators and compressors;

  (iv)

  construction equipment, including wheel loaders, bulldozers, crawler tractors, crawler loaders, truck-type loaders, off-highway trucks and hydraulic excavators;

  (v)

  agricultural equipment;

  (vi)

  self-propelled agricultural vehicles including tractors;

  (vii)

  fork-lift trucks;

• “vehicle", whether laden or not, has the same meaning as “vehicles" in the Council Regulation.

3.—(1) Pursuant to Article 13(2) of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3820/85 of 20th December 1985 on the harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport M3 (“the Council Regulation") until 3rd June 2001, and in order to meet the exceptional circumstances occasioned by the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain, or the effects or consequences of such exceptional circumstances, any time spent driving a vehicle for the purpose of—

(a) the collection or delivery to or from a farm of agricultural products, machinery, fertiliser, fuel, disinfectants, herbicides and pesticides; or

(b) the movement of livestock; or

(c) the transport of feeding stuff and grain,

shall not be taken into account for the purposes of Article 6(2) of that Regulation.

(2) In relation to the driving of a vehicle in the exceptional circumstances and for the purposes mentioned in paragraph (1) above, the said Council Regulation shall have effect as if:

(a) in Article 6, paragraph 1 first sentence, for the reference to “nine hours" there were substituted “ ten hours ” and the second sentence of that paragraph were deleted;

(b) in Article 8, for paragraph 3 there were substituted the following:

“3.   In the course of each week, one of the rest periods referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be extended, by way of weekly rest, to a total of 24 consecutive hours. Every third week this rest period shall be extended to a total of 45 consecutive hours.”.

Marginal Citations

M3 O.J. No. L 370, 31.12.85, p. 1.

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions

Larry Whitty

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State

Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions

30th March 2001

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Article 13(2) of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3820/85 of 20th December 1985 on harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport (“the Council Regulation") provides that Member States may, after authorisation by the Commission, grant exceptions from the application of the provisions of that Regulation to transport operations carried out in exceptional circumstances. The Commission has authorised the temporary exception provided for by these Regulations.

The Community Drivers’ Hours (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) (Temporary Exception) Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/628) applied a temporary exception for 30 days from 6th March until 4th April 2001. The present Regulations provide for a further temporary exception of 60 days and include the following changes:

—the movement of machinery is added to regulation 3(1)(a); and

—the reduced weekly rest of 24 consecutive hours is extended to 45 consecutive hours every third week (regulation 3(2)(b)).

These Regulations provide that until 3rd June 2001, any time spent driving vehicles for the purposes specified in regulation 3(1) to meet the exceptional circumstances occasioned by the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain, or the effects or consequences of such exceptional circumstances, shall not be taken into account for the purposes of the application of Article 6(2) of the Council Regulation.

These Regulations also provide that in relation to the driving of such vehicles in the exceptional circumstances mentioned above, Articles 6(1) and 8(3) of the Council Regulation shall have effect subject to certain modifications.