These Regulations implement certain provisions of Regulation (EC) 561/2006 (OJ No L102, 11.4.2006, p.1) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 (on the harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport and amending Council Regulations (EEC) No 3821/85 and (EC) No 2135/98 and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85) which have not previously been implemented. The subject matter of the European Community legislation is drivers’ hours and the equipment to be used for recording drivers’ activity.

Article 15(7) of Regulation 3821/85, as amended by Article 26(4) of Regulation 561/2006, requires a driver to produce to an enforcement officer hard copies of his driving record made during the current day and the previous 28 days. Regulation 6 inserts the new regulation 6A in to the Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Recording Equipment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 (the 1996 Regulations), requiring drivers to return paper records held by them to the transport undertaking (or undertakings) for which they have been working within 42 days of the records having been created.

Regulation 6 also implements Article 10(5)(a) of Regulation 561/2006 by inserting new provisions into the 1996 Regulations, as follows— new regulations 6B and 6C require transport undertakings to download data held electronically on a vehicle unit and a driver card whenever that is necessary to ensure that the data is not overwritten or otherwise lost to the undertaking and in any event before the expiration of specific periods according to the data concerned, namely— in the case of data stored on the vehicle unit other than detailed speed data, a period of 56 days computed in accordance with regulation 6B(3); in the case of data stored on the driver card, a period of 28 days computed in accordance with regulation 6C(3); new regulation 6D requires transport undertakings to download any data held electronically on a vehicle unit or driver card where an enforcement officer has reason to believe that an offence under the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 has been committed; new regulations 6E and 6F create offences of failing to download or to retain data and provide for the making of data which has been downloaded accessible to enforcement officers.

Regulation 7 inserts new regulations 10F and 10G into the 1996 Regulations which make provision in respect of— criminal proceedings against transport undertakings which are unincorporated bodies; offences committed by a corporate or unincorporated body with the consent or connivance of a director or other officer of that body.

Regulation 8 implements article 20(3) of Regulation 561/2006 by making it an offence if a driver who works for two or more undertakings fails to provide each of them with sufficient information to enable them to discharge their obligations in relation to the drivers’ hours.

Regulation 9 inserts into the Road Traffic Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 the penalty for the offence of contravention of requirement imposed by Chapter 2 of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 (crews, driving times, breaks and rest periods).

A partial Regulatory Impact Assessment of the effect this instrument will have on costs for the business and voluntary sectors has been produced and is available from Road Safety Policy Branch, Clarence Court, 10-18 Adelaide Street, Belfast BT2 8GB.

A Transposition Note has been prepared and is available from the above address.

A copy of Council Regulation (EC) 561/2006 may be obtained from the Office of Public Sector Information at http://www.opsi.gov.uk. The Official Journal of the EU may be accessed via the website of the European Union at http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex .