The Driving Licences (Community Driving Licence) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Transport Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 (c. 37)

1.—(1) Section 10A (exemption from licensing requirements of certain motor vehicles used under permits)(1) shall be amended as follows.

(2) At the beginning there shall be inserted “(1)”.

(3) For the words from “and a person” onwards there shall be substituted—

“(2) Where a holder of a licence under Part II of the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 was first granted a licence under that Part before 1st January 1997, he may drive any small bus at a time when it is being used as mentioned in subsection (1), notwithstanding that his licence under that Part does not authorise him to drive a small bus when it is being so used.

(3) Where—

(a) a holder of a licence under Part II of the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 was first granted a licence under that Part on or after 1st January 1997, or

(b) a Community licence holder is authorised by virtue of Article 15A(1) of that Order to drive in Northern Ireland a motor vehicle of any class,

he may drive any small bus to which subsection (4) applies at a time when it is being used as mentioned in subsection (1), notwithstanding that he is not authorised by his licence under that Part or by virtue of that Article (as the case may be) to drive such a bus.

(4) This subsection applies to any small bus which, when laden with the heaviest load which it is constructed to carry, weighs—

(a) not more than 3.5 tonnes, excluding any part of that weight which is attributable to specialised equipment intended for the carriage of disabled passengers, and

(b) not more than 4.25 tonnes otherwise.

(5) In this section—

• “Community licence” has the same meaning as in Part II of the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981, and

• “small bus” has the same meaning as in sections 10B to 10D.”

(1)

Sections 10A to 10D were inserted by S.I. 1990/994 (N.I. 7) Article 3; section 10A was amended by S.I. 1991/197 (N.I. 3) Schedule 4 paragraph 1