Commencement and citation

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Road Vehicles Lighting (Amendment) Regulations 1996 and shall come into force on 1st July 1997.

Preliminary

2.  The Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989(2) shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of these Regulations.

Modifications in relation to vehicles approved under the Motor Vehicles (Approval) Regulations 1996

3.  After regulation 9A, there shall be inserted the following regulation—

“Modifications in relation to vehicles approved under the Motor Vehicles (Approval) Regulations 1996

9B.—(1) In this regulation—

“the Approval Regulations” means the Motor Vehicles (Approval) Regulations 1996(3);

“coefficient of luminous intensity” has the same meaning as in ECE Regulation 3.01;

“ECE Regulation 3.01” means Regulation 3 (with the amendments in force on 20th March 1982), annexed to the Agreement concerning the adoption of uniform conditions of approval for Motor Vehicles Equipment and Parts and reciprocal recognition therefor concluded at Geneva on the 20th March 1958(4) to which the United Kingdom is a party(5);

“passenger vehicle approval certificate” means a Minister’s approval certificate in the form prescribed by the Approval Regulations which appears to have been issued on the basis that the vehicle is a vehicle to which Part II of those Regulations applies;

“relevant vehicle” means a vehicle—

“standard mark” means a mark which when applied to a lamp, reflector or device indicates compliance with the requirements of a particular instrument; and a reference to the instrument to which a standard mark relates shall be construed accordingly.

(2) The requirements of the Schedules to these Regulations, so far as they require any lamp, reflector or device to bear a particular standard mark (or one of two or more standard marks), shall not apply to a lamp, reflector or device if it is fitted to a relevant vehicle and—

(a)in the case of a lamp or device, it meets the requirements as to intensity; and

(b)in the case of a reflector, it meets the requirements as to coefficient of luminous intensity,

of the instrument to which the standard mark (or as the case may be one of those standard marks) relates.

(3) The requirements of these Regulations so far as they require headlamps (including a filament lamp fitted to a headlamp) fitted to a vehicle to bear a particular standard mark (or one of two or more standard marks) shall not apply to the headlamps fitted to a relevant vehicle if they emit sufficient light to illuminate the road in front of the vehicle on both main beam and dipped beam.

(4) Table 1 of Schedule 1 shall apply to a vehicle in respect of which a passenger vehicle approval certificate has been issued as if the entry that relates to dim-dip devices and running lamps were omitted.

(5) Paragraph (5) (markings) of Part I of Schedule 7 shall apply to a vehicle in respect of which a passenger approval certificate has been issued as if the vehicle were of a description falling within sub-paragraph (b) of that paragraph.”

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations insert a new regulation 9B into the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989, the effect of which is to modify those Regulations in relation to certain passenger vehicles which are the subject of a Minister’s approval certificate given pursuant to the Motor Vehicles (Approval) Regulations 1996.

These Regulations have been notified to the European Commission pursuant to Directive 83/189/EEC of 28th March 1983 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations (OJ 1983 L109, p. 9) as amended by Council Directive 88/182/EEC of 22nd March 1988 (OJ 1988 L81, p. 75) and European Parliament and Council Directive 94/10/EEC of 23 March 1994 (OJ 1994 L100, p. 30).