Section 49 — User-in-charge otherwise liable as driver
Extent: E+W+S
Snapshot: 2026-08-24
Reproduced from legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). Amendments made after 2026-08-24 may not be reflected — always check the official text .
(1) The user-in-charge of a vehicle is to be taken for the purposes of any enactment to be the driver of, and driving, the vehicle.
(2) Subsection (1)—
(a) does mean that (subject to section 47) an enactment applies to the user-in-charge as it would apply to a driver who acted in the same way as the user-in-charge in fact acts, but
(b) does not mean that any particular behaviour of the vehicle is to be treated as brought about by the user-in-charge when it is not in fact so brought about.
(3) If an individual is for a time the user-in-charge of a vehicle but moves so as no longer to be in position to control the vehicle, this section continues to apply to the individual as it applies to a user-in-charge until—
(a) another individual becomes the user-in-charge of the vehicle or takes control of it, or
(b) the authorised user-in-charge feature is disengaged.