Road Traffic Act 1974

13 Amendments relating to licensing of drivers of vehicles

(1) Part III of the 1972 Act (licensing of drivers of vehicles) shall have effect subject to the amendments in Schedule 3 to this Act, being amendments—

(a) providing for the grant of a driving licence expiring, except in certain cases, on the seventieth birthday of the holder,

(b) modifying the requirements, and requiring the disclosure of further information, relating to the physical fitness of drivers,

(c) restricting the cases where a licence to drive motor vehicles of one class operates as a provisional licence to drive motor vehicles of other classes,

(d) extending by one year the period which must elapse before the holder of a licence which has been endorsed with any particulars is entitled to have issued to him a new licence free from those particulars,

(e) conferring powers on appellate courts to suspend orders of disqualification imposed by lower courts,

(f) enabling a court, after it has convicted any person of an offence for which his licence is required to be endorsed but before it sentences him, to obtain particulars of any conviction which has previously been ordered to be endorsed on his licence, and

(g) treating the passing of a test of competence to drive under the law in force in Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or any of the Channel Islands as equivalent, in the case of drivers with disabilities, to passing a test under section 85 of that Act,

and amendments consequential on the matters referred to in paragraphs (a) to (g) above.

(2) After subsection (5) of section 170 of the 1972 Act (false statements and withholding material information) there shall be inserted the following subsection:—

“(5A) A person shall be guilty of an offence who fails without reasonable excuse to notify the Secretary of State as required by section 87AO) of this Act, but no proceedings for an offence under this subsection shall be instituted in England and Wales except by the Secretary of State or by a constable acting with the approval of the Secretary of State.”

(3) In section 182 of the 1972 Act (admissibility of records as evidence) after subsection (2) there shall be inserted the following subsection:—

“(2A) In any case where—

(a) any such statement as is referred to in subsection (1) above is produced to a magistrates' court in any proceedings for an offence involving obligatory or discretionary disqualification, within the meaning of Part III of this Act, and

(b) the statement specifies an alleged previous conviction of an accused person of any such offence, and

(c) it is proved to the satisfaction of the court, on oath or in such manner as may be prescribed by rules under section 15 of the Justices of the Peace Act 1949, that not less than 7 days before the statement is so produced a notice was served on the accused, in such form and manner as may be so prescribed, specifying the previous conviction and stating that it is proposed to bring it to the notice of the court in the event of, or, as the case may be, in view of his conviction, and

(d) the accused is not present in person before the court when the statement is so produced,

the court may take account of the previous conviction as if the accused had appeared and admitted it.”

(4) In Part I of Schedule 4 to the 1972 Act (prosecution and punishment of offences) after the entry relating to section 170(5) there shall be inserted the following entry:—

“170(5A)

Failure to notify Secretary of State of onset of, or deterioration in, relevant or prospective disability.

Summarily.

£100.

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Section 180 applies.”