The Road Traffic Offenders (Additional Offences) Order 2017

Statutory Instruments

2017 No. 294

Road Traffic

The Road Traffic Offenders (Additional Offences) Order 2017

Made

6th March 2017

Laid before Parliament

13th March 2017

Coming into force

5th April 2017

The Secretary of State for Transport makes the following Order in exercise of the powers conferred by section 20(3) of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988(1).

Citation and commencement

1.  This Order may be cited as the Road Traffic Offenders (Additional Offences) Order 2017 and comes into force on 5th April 2017.

Amendment of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988

2.  In section 20(2) of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 (speeding offences etc: admissibility of certain evidence)—

(a) after paragraph (b) insert—

“(ba) an offence under subsection (4) of section 17 of that Act consisting in a contravention of regulation 9 of the Motorways Traffic (England and Wales) Regulations 1982(2) (restriction on the use of hard shoulders) by the driving of a vehicle on the hard shoulder of a motorway;”; and

(b) after paragraph (e) insert—

“(ea) an offence under section 36(1) of that Act consisting in the failure to comply with an indication given by a light signal to vehicular traffic not to enter, or proceed in, a traffic lane;”.

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Transport

John Hayes

Minister of State

Department for Transport

6th March 2017

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order amends section 20 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 which allows records from prescribed devices, such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras, to be used as evidence in proceedings for certain offences.

This Order adds two offences to the list of offences to which section 20 applies—

(a) driving on the hard shoulder of a motorway contrary to regulation 9 of the Motorways Traffic (England and Wales) Regulations 1982 (S.I. 1982/1163) which is an offence under section17(4) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (c.27); and

(b) failing to comply with an indication given by a light signal not to enter, or proceed in, a traffic lane which is an offence under section 36(1) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (c.52).

A full impact assessment has not been prepared for this Order as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen. An Explanatory Memorandum has been prepared and is available alongside this instrument at www.legislation.gov.uk .

(1)

1988 c.53; section 20 was substituted by section 23 of the Road Traffic Act 1991 (c.40). There are other amendments to section 20 which are not relevant to these Regulations.

(2)

S.I. 1982/1163; regulation 9 was amended by S.I. 2015/392.