Transport Act (Northern Ireland) 1967

[F1 46B Good repute N.I.

(1) In determining whether a person is of good repute, the Department shall have regard to any relevant matter but shall, in particular, have regard to—

(a) a conviction or penalty incurred by that person, or any partner, employee or agent of the person, or in the case of a company, any officer of the company, as specified in Article 6.1(b) of the 2009 Regulation; and

(b) any other compelling grounds for doubting the good repute of the person, or any partner, employee or agent of the person, or in the case of a company, any officer of the company, which appear to the Department to relate to the person’s fitness to hold a licence.

(2) For the purposes of this Act, a conviction or penalty incurred by a person engaged in the transport of passengers includes a conviction or penalty incurred for an offence under the law of any part of the United Kingdom or any corresponding offence under the law of any country or territory outside the United Kingdom.

(3) In determining whether a person is of good repute the Department must consider whether a finding that the person is no longer of good repute would constitute a disproportionate response.

(4) Without prejudice to the generality of the Department’s powers under subsection (1), to determine that a person engaged in the transport of passengers is not of good repute, the Department shall determine that that person is not of good repute if that person has—

(a) been convicted of a serious offence (within the meaning given in subsection (5));

[F2 (b) incurred a conviction or penalty for a most serious infringement;] or

(c) been convicted of, or incurred a penalty for, a road transport offence.

(5) A person engaged in the transport of passengers has a conviction for a “serious offence” if—

(a) that person has been convicted of any offence under the law of any part of the United Kingdom or under the law of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom; and

(b) on such conviction there was imposed on that person for that offence a punishment falling within subsection (6).

(6) The punishments are—

(a) a sentence of imprisonment for a term exceeding 3 months;

(b) a fine exceeding level 4 on the standard scale;

(c) a community service order or community payback order requiring a person to perform work for more than 60 hours; and

(d) in the case of an offence committed under the law of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom, any punishment corresponding to those mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (c).

(7) In this section—

(a) “a sentence of imprisonment” includes a reference to any form of custodial sentence or order, other than one imposed under the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, or any corresponding statutory provision in any part of the United Kingdom or any corresponding provision in any country or territory outside the United Kingdom;

(b) “community service order” means an order under Article 13 of the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 1996;

(c) “community payback order” means an order under section 227A of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995;

[F3 (ca) “most serious infringement” means—

(i) an infringement referred to in Annex 4 of the 2009 Regulation;

(ii) an infringement referred to in Commission Regulation (EU) 2016/403 which that Regulation classifies as a “most serious infringement”; or

(iii) an infringement referred to in regulations made under Article 6.2(b) of the 2009 Regulation which the regulations define as having the highest degree of seriousness of infringements which the regulations establish;]

(d) “road transport offence” means—

(i) an offence under the law of any part of the United Kingdom relating to road transport including, in particular an offence in the field described in Article 6.1(a)(iv), or relating to the matters described in Article 6.1(b) of the 2009 Regulation; or

(ii) any corresponding offence under the law of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom.

(8) A reference to an offence under the law of any part of the United Kingdom includes a reference to an offence under section 42 of the Armed Forces Act 2006.

(9) For the purposes of this section—

(a) convictions which are spent for the purposes of the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 shall be disregarded; and

(b) the Department may also disregard an offence if such time as it thinks appropriate has elapsed since the date of the conviction.]

F1 S. 46B substituted (18.8.2014) by The Road Passenger Transport (Qualifications of Operators) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014 (S.R. 2014/206), regs. 1(1), 9(9)

F2 S. 46B(4)(b) substituted (31.12.2020) by The International Road Passenger Transport (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/973), regs. 1(2), 2(4)(a); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

F3 S. 46B(7)(ca) inserted (31.12.2020) by The International Road Passenger Transport (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/973), regs. 1(2), 2(4)(b); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)