2.—(1) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(1) applies to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Assembly.
(2) In these Regulations—
“the Act” means the Disability Discrimination Act 1995;
“breakdown or recovery operator” means a provider of roadside assistance services for the purpose of recovering or repairing a broken down vehicle;
“hire vehicle” means an M1, M2 or N1(2) vehicle which is hired out by a vehicle-hire firm under a hiring agreement;
“hiring agreement” means an agreement for the hire of an M1, M2 or N1 vehicle being an agreement which contains such particulars as may be prescribed under Article 88 of the Road Traffic Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1996(3) but does not include a hire-purchase agreement within the meaning of section 189 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974(4);
“M1”, in relation to a vehicle, means a vehicle designed and constructed for the carriage of passengers and comprising no more than 8 seats in addition to the driver’s seat;
“M2”, in relation to a vehicle, means a vehicle designed and constructed for the carriage of passengers, comprising more than 8 seats in addition to the driver’s seat and having a maximum mass not exceeding 5 tonnes;
“N1”, in relation to a vehicle, means a vehicle designed and constructed for the carriage of goods and having a maximum mass not exceeding 3.5 tonnes;
“private hire vehicle” means a vehicle which—
seats not more than 8 passengers in addition to the driver; and
is licensed under Article 61 of the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981(5) to carry passengers for hire (but not to stand or ply for hire);
“public service vehicle” means a vehicle which—
seats more than 8 passengers in addition to the driver; and
is a public service vehicle for the purposes of the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981;
“rail vehicle” means a vehicle constructed or adapted to carry passengers by rail;
“taxi” means a vehicle which—
is licensed under Article 61 of the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 to stand or ply for hire; and
seats not more than 8 passengers in addition to the driver; and
“vehicle-hire firm” means any person engaged in hiring vehicles in the course of a business.
The definitions of M1, M2 and N1 vehicles derive from the definition of vehicle categories in Annex II(A) of Council Directive 70/156/EEC (O.J. No.L 42, 23.2.1970, p.1), as last amended by Council Directive 2004/3/EC (O.J. No. L49, 19.2.2004, p.36)
S.I. 1981/154 (N.I. 1); Article 61 was amended by Article 7 of the Road Traffic, Transport and Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1984 (S.I. 1984/1986 (N.I. 15))