1997 No. 373

ROAD TRAFFIC AND VEHICLES

The Road Traffic (Courses for Drink-Drive Offenders) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997

Made

Coming into operation

The Department of the Environment, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by Articles 37(3) and (8) and 38(3) of the Road Traffic Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 19961, and of every other power enabling it in that behalf, hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation and commencement1

These Regulations may be cited as the Road Traffic (Courses for Drink-Drive Offenders) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 and shall come into operation on 1st October 1997.

Interpretation2

In these Regulations—

  • “the Order” means the Road Traffic Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1996;

  • “course” means a course approved by the Department for the purposes of Article 36 of the Order;

  • “manager” in relation to the course, means the person for the time being nominated as the manager of the course by the Department.

Certificate of completion3

The certificate referred to in Article 37(1) of the Order shall be a certificate in such form and contain such particulars as may from time to time be determined by the Department.

Course organiser4

The person responsible for giving the certificates mentioned in Article 37(1) of the Order in respect of the completion of a course shall be the person for the time being nominated for that purpose by the manager.

Notice of non-completion5

A notice under paragraph (5) of Article 37 of the Order shall, for the purposes of that paragraph, be treated as given a person if it was sent by registered post or recorded delivery service addressed to him at his last known address, notwithstanding that it was returned as undelivered or was for any other reason not received by him.

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of the Environment on

J. RitchieAssistant Secretary

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

Articles 36 and 37 of the Road Traffic Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 give courts power to order that the period of disqualification imposed on a person convicted of a drink-drive offence is to be reduced if he completes a course approved by the Department of the Environment. Article 39 of that Order applies those provisions with modification during an experimental period. In particular, during the experimental period, orders can be made only by courts acting for designated areas.

These Regulations make provision for—

a

the form and content of the certificate to be given to an offender when he satisfactorily completes a course;

b

determining the person responsible for giving such certificates;

c

the circumstances in which a notice of non-completion of a course is to be treated as given to the offender.