The Removal and Disposal of Vehicles Regulations 1986 (S.I. 1986/183) (“the 1986 Regulations”) provide for the removal and disposal of vehicles under sections 3 and 4 of the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978 and sections 99 and 101 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. These Regulations amend the 1986 Regulations in Scotland to reduce the period of notice prescribed by the 1986 Regulations in two cases.

The first case is where an authority proposes to remove a vehicle which appears to the authority to be abandoned and in their opinion is in such a condition that it ought to be destroyed, the notice period is reduced from 7 days to 24 hours from when a notice is affixed to the vehicle (regulation 3 of these Regulations).

The second case is where an authority has removed a vehicle (but it is not in such condition that it ought to be destroyed) and has located the owner, the period during which the owner is required to remove the vehicle from the custody of the authority is reduced from 21 days to 7 days from when the relevant notice is served on the owner (regulation 4 of these Regulations). The authority may dispose of the vehicle after the expiry of that period, provided there is no licence in force for that vehicle.