The Railways (Access, Management and Licensing of Railway Undertakings) Regulations 2016

Amendment of the Railway (Licensing of Railway Undertakings) Regulations 2005 E+W+S

39.—(1) The Railway (Licensing of Railway Undertakings) Regulations 2005 M1 are amended as follows.

(2) In regulation 2 (interpretation)—

(a) after the definition of “the 1995 Directive” insert—

““the 2012 Directive” means Directive 2012/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21st November 2012 establishing a single European railway area (recast) M2 ;”;

(b) after the definition of “ORR” insert the following definition—

““railway undertaking” means any public or private undertaking, the principal business of which is to provide services for the transport of goods and/or passengers by rail with a requirement that the undertaking ensure traction; this includes undertakings which provide traction only;”; and

(c) omit paragraph (2).

(3) In regulation 4 (scope)—

(a) in paragraph (2)(c) omit the words “that are not covered by the scope of Council Directive 91/440/EEC dated 29th July 1991 on the development of the Community's railways”; and

(b) after paragraph (2) insert—

“(3) For the purposes of paragraph (2)—

(a) “urban or suburban rail passenger services” means transport services whose principal purpose is to meet the passenger transport needs of an urban centre or conurbation, including a cross-border conurbation, together with transport needs between such a centre or conurbation and surrounding areas; and

(b) “regional rail freight services” means transport services whose principal purpose is to meet the rail freight transport needs of a region, including a cross-border region.”.

(4) In regulation 5 (prohibition of unlicensed provision of services), paragraph (4), after the words “the 1995 Directive” add “ or the 2012 Directive ”.

(5) In regulation 6 (appointment of licensing authority and grant of European licences)—

(a) after paragraph (4) insert—

“(4A) In the exercise of its functions under these Regulations, the ORR shall comply with Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/171 of 4th February 2015 on certain aspects of the procedure of licensing railway undertakings M3 .”; and

(b) in paragraph (11) after the words “The ORR shall” insert “ without delay ”.

(6) In regulation 8 (monitoring, suspension and revocation of European licences)—

(a) for paragraph (2) substitute—

“(2) The ORR shall take such steps as are necessary to enable it to determine whether or not a railway undertaking complies with a requirement referred to in Schedule 2—

(a) at regular intervals of at least every 5 years, or

(b) at any time the ORR considers that there is serious doubt whether the railway undertaking complies with the requirement.”;

(b) in paragraph (5) for the words “the 1995 Directive”, where they first appear, substitute “ the 2012 Directive ” and for the words after “that licensing authority;” to the end substitute—

“and in this paragraph, the expression “European licence” means a licence granted pursuant to any action taken by an EEA State for the purpose of implementing the 1995 Directive or the 2012 Directive and a “licensing authority” means the body responsible for granting licences within an EEA State.”; and

(c) in paragraph (14), for the words “the European Commission”, substitute “ the European Railway Agency ”.

(7) In regulation 9 (prohibition on operating trains without a statement of national regulatory provisions), paragraph 5, after the words “the 1995 Directive” add “ or the 2012 Directive ”.

(8) In regulation 17 (general duties of the Rail Passengers' Council), paragraph 2, after the words “the 1995 Directive” add “ or the 2012 Directive ”.

(9) In regulation 19 (duties of the London Transport Users' Committee), paragraph 2, after the words “the 1995 Directive” add “ or the 2012 Directive ”.

(10) After regulation 20 insert—

“Review

21.— (1) The Secretary of State must from time to time—

(a) carry out a review of these Regulations;

(b) set out the conclusions of the review in a report; and

(c) publish the report.

(2) In carrying out the review the Secretary of State must, so far as is reasonable, have regard to how the 2012 Directive (which is implemented in part by means of these Regulations) is implemented in other EEA States.

(3) The report must in particular—

(a) set out the objectives intended to be achieved by the regulatory system established by these Regulations;

(b) assess the extent to which those objectives are achieved; and

(c) assess whether those objectives remain appropriate and, if so, the extent to which they could be achieved with a system that imposes less regulation.

(4) The first report under this regulation must be published before the end of the period of five years beginning with the day on which the Railways (Access, Management and Licensing of Railway Undertakings) Regulations 2016 M4 come into force.

(5) Reports under this regulation are afterwards to be published at intervals not exceeding five years.”.

(11) In Schedule 2—

(a) At the end of paragraph 7(d) omit “and”;

(b) after paragraph 7(e) insert—

“; and

(f) taxes and social security payments.”;

(c) in paragraph 8 for the word “substantial” substitute “ considerable or recurrent ”; and

(d) after paragraph 11(1) insert—

“(1A) In determining whether adequate insurance cover is maintained, the ORR may take into account the specificities and risk-profile of different types of services, in particular of railway operations for cultural or heritage purposes.”.

Marginal Citations

M1 S.I. 2005/3050; amended by S.I. 2010/439, Schedule, Part 2, paragraph 13 and S.I. 2015/1682, Schedule, Part 2, paragraph 10(1). There are other amendments not relevant to these Regulations.

M2 O.J. No. L 343, 14.12.12, p. 32, as corrected by Corrigendum, O.J. L 67, 12.3.15, p. 32.

M3 O.J. No. L 29, 5.2.15, p. 3.

M4 S.I. 2016/645.