Finance Act 1966

10 Customs procedures: hover vehicles and related matters.

(1) Parts II, X, XI and XII of the Act of 1952 (general and supplemental provisions) shall apply as if references to ships or vessels included references to hover vehicles, and all other provisions of the customs and excise Acts shall apply as if references (however expressed) to goods or passengers carried in or moved by ships or vessels included references to goods or passengers carried in or moved by hover vehicles; and in all the provisions of the customs and excise Acts " landed", " loaded ", " shipped ", " shipped as stores ", " transhipment ", " voyage ", " waterborne ", " master " and cognate expressions shall be construed accordingly.

(2) The provisions of Schedule 2 to this Act shall also have effect with respect to the application of the Act of 1952 to hover vehicles.

(3) The Commissioners may by regulations impose conditions and restrictions as respects the movement of hover vehicles and the carriage of goods by hover vehicles, and in particular—

(a) may prescribe the procedure to be followed by hover vehicles proceeding to or from a port or any customs airport or customs station, and authorise the proper officer to give directions as to their routes, and

(b) may make provision for cases where by reason of accident, or in any other circumstance, it is impracticable to comply with any conditions or restrictions imposed or directions given as respects hover vehicles,

and if any person contravenes or fails to comply with any regulations made under this subsection, or with any direction given by the Commissioners or the proper officer in pursuance of any such regulations, he shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred pounds and any goods in respect of which the offence was committed shall be liable to forfeiture.

(4) Sections 14(1) and 17(1) of the Act of 1952 (power to approve wharves and transit sheds in any port) may be applied to places not in a port and—

(a) Part II of the said Act shall apply in relation to any place approved under the said section 14 or 17 which is not in a port as if it were in a port, and

(b) section 298 of the said Act (power to search persons) shall apply to any person in, entering or leaving any such place, and

(c) subsection (3) (a) above shall apply to hover vehicles proceeding to or from any such place as if it were a port.

(5) References in the customs and excise Acts to goods imported or exported by land, or conveyed into or out of Northern Ireland by land, include references to goods imported, exported or conveyed across any part of the boundary of Northern Ireland, and it is hereby declared that in those Acts references to vehicles include references to hover vehicles proceeding over land or water or partly over land and partly over water.

(6) Any power of making regulations or other instruments relating to the importation or exportation of goods conferred by the customs and excise Acts may be exercised so as to make provision for the importation or exportation of goods by hover vehicles which is different from the provision made for the importation or exportation of goods by other means.

(7) Goods to which section 47 of the said Act applies (drawback goods, etc., and goods subject to restrictions or controls on export) shall only be exported in a hover vehicle if it is of a class or description for the time being approved by the Commissioners and subject to such conditions and restrictions as they may impose, and—

(a) a person contravening or failing to comply with this subsection, or any condition or restriction imposed under this subsection, shall be liable to a penalty of three times the value of the goods or one hundred pounds, whichever is the greater,

(b) any goods shipped or entered contrary to this subsection shall be liable to forfeiture.

(8) In section 29(1) of the said Act (entry by bill of sight of goods imported by sea or air) the words " by sea or air " shall cease to have effect, and in section 284(2) of that Act (justices' jurisdiction to try offences committed on the water or in the air outside their area) the words " on the water or in the air " shall cease to have effect.

(9) In this section and its Schedule " hover vehicle " means a vehicle designed to be supported on a cushion of air.