Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988

MiscellaneousE+W+S

82 Accounting for fixed penalties: England and Wales.E+W+S

(1)In England and Wales, sums paid by way of fixed penalty for an offence shall be treated for the purposes of [F1section 38 of the Courts Act 2003 (application of receipts of designated officers)] as if they were fines imposed on summary conviction for that offence.

F2(2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

F2(2A). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

F2(3). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

83 Powers of court where clerk deceived.E+W+S

(1)This section applies where—

(a)in endorsing [F3the counterpart of] any person’s licence under section 57 of this Act, the fixed penalty clerk is deceived as to whether endorsement under that section is excluded by section 61(2) of this Act by virtue of the fact that the licence holder would be liable to be disqualified under section 35 of this Act if he were convicted of the offence, or

(b)in endorsing [F4the counterpart of] any person’s licence under section 77 of this Act the [F5designated officer or] clerk of court specified in the conditional offer (within the meaning of that section) is deceived as to whether he is required by section 76(5) of this Act to return the licence [F6and its counterpart without endorsing the counterpart] by virtue of the fact that the licence holder would be liable to be disqualified under section 35 of this Act if he were convicted of the offence.

(2)If—

(a)the deception constituted or was due to an offence committed by the licence holder, and

(b)the licence holder is convicted of that offence,

the court by or before which he is convicted shall have the same powers and duties as it would have had if he had also been convicted by or before it of the offence of which particulars were endorsed under section 57 or, as the case may be, 77 of this Act.

84 Regulations.E+W+S

The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision as to any matter incidental to the operation of this Part of this Act, and in particular—

(a)for prescribing any information or further information to be provided in any notice, notification, certificate or receipt under section 52(1), 54(4), 56, 59(1), F7... 63(2), 70(2) and (3)(b), 73(4)(b), 75(2) and (3) or 76(5) and (6) of this Act or in any official form for a statutory statement mentioned in Schedule 4 to, or a statement under section 66(2) of, this Act, [F8and

(b)the amount of the penalty stated in the offer is less than the fixed penalty applicable in the circumstances,]

85 Service of documents.E+W+S

(1)Subject to any requirement of this Part of this Act with respect to the manner in which a person may be provided with any such document, he may be provided with the following documents by post (but without prejudice to any other method of providing him with them), that is to say—

(a)any of the statutory statements mentioned in Schedule 4 to this Act, and

(b)any of the documents mentioned in section 66(2) of this Act.

(2)Where a notice requesting a hearing in respect of an offence is permitted by a fixed penalty notice or notice to owner relating to that offence to be given by post, section 7 of the M1Interpretation Act 1978 (service of documents by post) shall apply as if that notice were permitted to be so given by this Act.

(3)A notice to owner may be served on any person—

(a)by delivering it to him or by leaving it at his proper address, or

(b)by sending it to him by post,

and where the person on whom such a notice is to be served is a body corporate it is duly served if it is served on the secretary or clerk of that body.

(4)For the purposes of this Part of this Act and of section 7 of the M2Interpretation Act 1978 as it applies for the purposes of subsection (3) above the proper address of any person in relation to the service on him of a notice to owner is—

(a)in the case of the secretary or clerk of a body corporate, that of the registered or principal office of that body or the registered address of the person who is or was the registered keeper of the vehicle concerned at the time of service, and

(b)in any other case, his last known address at the time of service.

(5)In subsection (4) above, “registered address”, in relation to the registered keeper of a vehicle, means the address recorded in the record kept under [F9the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994] with respect to that vehicle as being that person’s address.

86 Functions of traffic wardens.E+W+S

(1)An order under section 95(5) of the M3Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 may not authorise the employment of a traffic warden to discharge any function under this Part of this Act in respect of an offence if the offence appears to the traffic warden to be an offence involving obligatory endorsement [F10unless that offence was committed whilst the vehicle concerned was stationary.].

(2)In so far as an order under that section authorises the employment of traffic wardens for the purposes of this Part of this Act, references in this Part of this Act to a constable or, as the case may be, to a constable in uniform include a traffic warden.

87 Guidance on application of Part III.E+W+S

The Secretary of State must issue guidance to chief officers of police for police areas [F11and to the chief constable of the British Transport Police]in respect of the operation of this Part of this Act with the objective so far as possible of working towards uniformity.

88 Procedure for regulations and orders.E+W+S

(1)Any power conferred by this Part of this Act on the Secretary of State to make any order or regulations shall be exercisable by statutory instrument.

(2)Before making—

(a)an order under section 51, 53 or 75 of this Act, or

(b)regulations under section 84 of this Act,

the Secretary of State must consult with such representative organisations as he thinks fit.

(3)A statutory instrument containing regulations or an order under any provision of this Part of this Act shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

(4)Regulations under this Part of this Act may—

(a)make different provision for different cases, and

(b)contain such incidental and supplemental provisions as the Secretary of State considers expedient for the purposes of the regulations.

89 Interpretation.E+W+S

(1)In this Part of this Act—

• “authorised person” has the meaning given by section 54(9) of this Act,

• [F12[F13 “British Transport Police” means the force of constables appointed under the British Transport Commission Act 1949 (c. xxix);]]

• F14[ “chief constable” means, in Scotland in relation to any conditional offer, the chief constable for the area in which the conditional offer has been issued.]

• “chief officer of police” (except in the definition of “authorised person”) means, in relation to any fixed penalty notice [F15, notice to owner or conditional offer], the chief officer of police for the police area in which the fixed penalty offence in question is alleged to have been committed,

• “court of summary jurisdiction” has the same meaning as in [F16section 307(1) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995],

• “driver” except in section 62 of this Act means, in relation to an alleged fixed penalty offence, the person by whom, assuming the offence to have been committed, it was committed,

• F17. . .

• “petty sessions area” has the same meaning as in the M4Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980, and

• “proceedings”, except in relation to proceedings for enforcing payment of a sum registered under section 71 of this Act, means criminal proceedings.

(2)In this Part of this Act—

(a)references to a notice requesting a hearing in respect of an offence are references to a notice indicating that the person giving the notice wishes to contest liability for the offence or seeks a determination by a court with respect to the appropriate punishment for the offence,

(b)references to an offence include an alleged offence, and

(c)references to the person who is or was at any time the registered keeper of a vehicle are references to the person in whose name the vehicle is or was at that time registered under [F18the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994].

90 Index to Part III.E+W+S

The expressions listed in the left hand column below are respectively defined or (as the case may be) fall to be construed in accordance with the provisions of this Part of this Act listed in the right-hand column in relation to those expressions.