The Road User Charging (Charges and Penalty Charges) (London) (Amendment) Regulations 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Road User Charging (Charges and Penalty Charges) (London) Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/2285) (“the Principal Regulations”).

The Principal Regulations provide for the imposition of penalty charges for the non-payment of charges for the use or keeping of vehicles on roads in Greater London imposed by schemes under Schedule 23 to the Greater London Authority Act 1999.

Regulation 3 of these Regulations amends regulation 2 of the Principal Regulations (interpretation) by the insertion of definitions of “the Enforcement Regulations” as the Road User Charging (Enforcement and Adjudication) (London) Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/2313 as amended by S.I. 2003/108) and “the Registration and Licensing Regulations 2002” as the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2002 (S.I. 2002/2742).

Regulation 4 substitutes a new paragraph (4) in regulation 4 of the Principal Regulations (imposition of penalty charges) which requires a charging scheme to specify the time in which any penalty charge imposed by it under paragraph (i) is to be paid. A charging scheme must provide that such a penalty charge is to be reduced by the amount or proportion and to the sum specified in the scheme if it is duly paid within such shorter time as is so specified and that a penalty charge is to be increased by the amount or proportion and to the sum so specified if not duly paid before the end of the relevant period defined by regulation 17(2) or, as the case may be, (3) of the Enforcement Regulations.

Regulation 5 amends regulation 6(4), (5) and (7) of the Principal Regulations (liability for charges and penalty charges) by making references to the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2002 (S.I. 2002/2742) in place of references to the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 1971.

Regulation 6 substitutes new paragraphs (2) and (3) in regulation 11 of the Principal Regulations (release of immobilised vehicles) to extend the circumstances in which a penalty charge is to be treated as “outstanding” and “the subject of an outstanding appeal”.