The Road Safety Act 2006 (Commencement No. 11 and Transitional Provisions) Order 2015

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order brings into force section 10 of the Road Safety Act 2006. It also commences Schedule 3 (in part) together with part of Schedule 7. A number of transitional provisions are also made.

Section 10 and Schedule 3 amend the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 to abolish the driving licence counterpart in Great Britain and contain consequential amendments to other primary legislation. These changes provide that counterparts to driving licences will no longer be issued with driving licences, endorsements will no longer be entered onto counterparts and GB licence holders will no longer be required to retain or produce their counterpart. Endorsements will instead be entered solely onto an individual’s electronic driving record (maintained by the Driver and Vehicles Licensing Agency (DVLA) which is an executive agency of the Department for Transport).

The provisions also abolish the Community counterpart (issued by GB authorities to certain community licence holders) and the additional counterpart issued by GB authorities to Northern Irish licence holders under section 109A of the Road Traffic Act 1988.

Part 3 of this Order makes transitional provisions. These provide that, on or after the Commencement Date, endorsements placed on counterparts before that date are to be treated as endorsements placed on driving records.