The Road Traffic Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1996

Speeding offences etc: admissibility of certain evidence

23.—(1) Evidence of a fact relevant to proceedings for an offence to which this Article applies may be given by the production of—

(a) a record produced by a prescribed device, and

(b) (in the same or another document) a certificate as to the circumstances in which the record was produced signed by a constable or by a person authorised by or on behalf of the Chief Constable;

but subject to the following provisions of this Article.

(2) This Article applies to—

(a) an offence under Article 155 of the Order of 1981 (exceeding speed limit);

(b) an offence under Article 156 of that Order (exceeding temporary or experimental speed limit);

(c) an offence under Article 49 of the Order of 1995 consisting in the failure to comply with an indication given in a light signal that vehicular traffic may not proceed;

(d) an offence under paragraph (4) of Article 20 of the [1993 NI 15.] Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993 consisting in the contravention of a restriction on the speed of vehicles imposed under that Article.

(3) The Department may by order amend paragraph (2) by making additions to or deletions from the list of offences for the time being set out there; and an order under this paragraph may make such transitional provision as appears to it to be necessary or expedient.

(4) A record produced or measurement made by a prescribed device shall not be admissible as evidence of a fact relevant to proceedings for an offence to which this Article applies unless—

(a) the device is of a type approved by the Department, and

(b) any conditions subject to which the approval was given are satisfied.

(5) Any approval given by the Department for the purposes of this Article may be given subject to conditions as to the purposes for which, and the manner and other circumstances in which, any device of the type concerned is to be used.

(6) In proceedings for an offence to which this Article applies, evidence—

(a) of a measurement made by a device, or of the circumstances in which it was made, or

(b) that a device was of a type approved for the purposes of this Article, or that any conditions subject to which an approval was given were satisfied,

may be given by the production of a document which is signed as mentioned in paragraph (1) and which, as the case may be, gives particulars of the measurement or of the circumstances in which it was made, or states that the device was of such a type or that, to the best of the knowledge and belief of the person making the statement, all such conditions were satisfied.

(7) For the purposes of this Article a document purporting to be a record of the kind mentioned in paragraph (1) or to be a certificate or other document signed as mentioned in that paragraph or in paragraph (6), shall be deemed to be such a record, or to be so signed, unless the contrary is proved.

(8) Nothing in paragraph (1) or (6) makes a document admissible as evidence in proceedings for an offence unless a copy of it has, not less than 7 days before the hearing or trial, been served on the person charged with the offence; and nothing in those paragraphs makes a document admissible as evidence of anything other than the matters shown on a record produced by a prescribed device if that person, not less than 3 days before the hearing or trial or within such further time as the court may in special circumstances allow, serves a notice on the complainant requiring attendance at the hearing or trial of the person who signed the document.

(9) In this Article “prescribed device” means a device of a description prescribed in an order made by the Department.

(10) Orders made under paragraphs (3) and (9) shall be subject to negative resolution.