The Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2013

Explanatory note

Reproduced verbatim from the instrument as published on legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). The note is prepared by the responsible government department and is not part of the instrument itself.

These Regulations amend the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 (“the 1996 Regulations”) in order to accommodate the requirements of Directive 2012/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 th November 2012 on driving licences (amending Directive 2006/126 “the Third Driving Licences Directive”).

The changes in these Regulations are as follows—

allowing a tolerance of 5cc below the minimum specified engine size for small, medium and large motorcycles that can be used for the test – categories A1, A2 and A;

reducing the minimum engine power requirement for medium motorcycles (category A2) used for the driving test;

raising the minimum engine power requirement for large motorcycles (category A) used for the driving test;

introducing a minimum mass weight requirement, for large motorcycles (category A) used for the driving test;

changing the prescribed load requirements in order to allow greater flexibility in the loads that may be used for training purposes (category C);

removing the need for 8-forward gear ratios for large test vehicles (category C);

allowing those persons who take a lorry or bus test (category C and D) on an automatic vehicle to gain a manual entitlement for those vehicles, if they already hold a manual entitlement in the following categories: B, BE, C, CE, C1, C1E, D, DE, D1E (cars, lorries and buses, with or without trailers);

applying the same flexibility (whereby a person taking a test on a large automatic vehicle is given a manual entitlement if they already hold a manual entitlement in another category), to existing automatic licence holders (apart from motorcycles) when they exchange their licence for any reason; and

an amendment to allow drivers being at least 21 years of age holding a full category B licence, to gain entitlement to ride motor tricycles on that licence, as allowed under Article 6(3)(a) of Directive 2006/126/EC .

An Explanatory Memorandum, Regulatory Impact Assessment and Transposition Note have been produced and are available from Road Safety and Vehicle Regulation Division, Department of the Environment, Clarence Court, 10-18 Adelaide Street, Town Parks, Belfast BT2 8GB or viewed online at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr .