HC Deb 30 July 1956 vol 557 cc1103-9

Lords Amendment: In page 48, line 12, at end insert: ("4.—(1) In subsection (1) of section ten of the London Traffic Act, 1924 (which, as amended by section sixty-three of the London Passenger Transport Act, 1933, enables the Minister to make regulations with respect to road traffic in the London Traffic Area) after the word 'load' in the second place where it occurs, there shall be inserted the words 'the number of passengers the vehicle is adapted to carry'. (2) In paragraph (2) of the Third Schedule to the said Act of 1924 (which specifies the matters with respect to which regulations may be made under the said section ten) after the word 'traffic' there shall be inserted the words 'by vehicles, or'. (3) For the purposes of the said section ten and the said Third Schedule the expression 'road' means any highway and any other road to which the public has access. 5. In subsection (1) of section twenty-three of the Public Health Act, 1925 (which confers powers on local authorities with respect to the lopping of trees, hedges and shrubs overhanging streets or footpaths) references to trees, hedges, and shrubs shall include references to vegetation of any description, and for the words 'street or footpath' there shall be substituted the words 'highway or any other road or footpath to which the public has access'. 6.—(1) Regulations under the Road Transport Lighting Acts, 1927 to 1953, granting exemptions from any of the requirements of those Acts—

  1. (a) may grant exemptions therefrom in such cases as may be specified in the regulations and subject to such conditions as may be specified in or under the regulations; and
  2. (b) may make different provision as respects different areas, as respects different classes or descriptions of vehicles or as respects the same class or description of vehicles in different circumstances.
(2) For paragraph (b) of subsection (2) of section one of the Road Transport Lighting Act, 1927 (which subsection provides for exempting vehicles from the requirements of that Act) there shall be substituted the following paragraph:— '(b) vehicles standing or parked on any road with respect to which a speed limit on the driving of mechanically propelled vehicles is in force by virtue of any enactment or on any road verge or in any parking place or any stand for hackney carriages.' (3) In relation to a road with respect to which an exemption under the said paragraph (b) has effect (whether absolutely or subject to conditions) the power conferred by subsection (1) of section forty-eight of the Act of 1930 of placing traffic signs indicating the existence of the exemption shall, if the local authority for the area in which the road is situated is not the highway authority for the road, be exercisable by the local authority with the consent of the highway authority, and the power conferred by subsection (5) of that section of giving to the highway authority directions for the removal of a traffic sign or other object or device or for the replacement of a traffic sign by, or its conversion into, a sign of another type or character shall include power to give such directions to the local authority in relation to a traffic sign, object or device placed by them on or near any such road. In this sub-paragraph 'local authority' means, as respects England and Wales, the council of a county borough, county district, metropolitan borough or the Common Council of the City of London, and as respects Scotland a county council or town council. (4) Any provision contained in regulations under the Road Transport Lighting Acts, 1927 to 1953, which grant exemptions from any of the requirements of those Acts and are in force at the coming into operation of this paragraph shall have effect as if made under those Acts as amended by this paragraph. ("7.—(1) The Minister may by regulations provide that, subject to any exemptions prescribed by the regulations,—
  1. (a) where the length of a vehicle, or the overall length of two or more vehicles of which one is drawing the other or others, inclusive of any load on the vehicle or vehicles, exceeds a length so prescribed, the vehicle or vehicles shall when on a road during the hours of darkness carry such lamps or reflectors each showing a light, or as the case may be facing, to the side as may be so prescribed;
  2. (b) a vehicle constructed or adapted so as to be drawn by another vehicle shall when on a road during the hours of darkness carry such lamps each showing a light to the front or the side, or both, as may be prescribed;
and any such regulations may prescribe the conditions with which lamps or reflectors carried on a vehicle in pursuance of the regulations must comply and the position and manner in which they are to be attached, and may make different provision in respect of vehicles of different classes or descriptions, or in respect of vehicles of the same class or description in different circumstances. (2) Section ten of the Road Transport Lighting Act, 1927 (which imposes penalties for contraventions of that Act or of regulations thereunder) and section fourteen of that Act (which specifies the vehicles to which that Act applies and applies the Act to the Crown) shall apply in relation to this paragraph and regulations thereunder as they apply in relation to that Act and regulations thereunder. (3) Any lamps or reflectors required to be carried by virtue of this paragraph shall be carried in addition to, and not instead of, those required to be carried by or by virtue of the Road Transport Lighting Acts, 1927 to 1953, and accordingly any such lamps or reflectors shall, for the purposes of those Acts and, in particular, section two of the said Act of 1927 and for the purposes of section eight of the Act of 1934, be treated as not showing a light to the front or to the rear. (4) Any reference in section nineteen of the Act of 1934 to the Road Transport Lighting Acts, 1927 to 1953, shall include a reference to this paragraph. (5) It is hereby declared that any reference in section one of the Road Transport Lighting Act, 1953, to a reflector is a reference to a reflector facing to the rear. (6) The power to make regulations conferred by this paragraph shall be exercisable by statutory instrument subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament. 8.—(1) In section six of the Road Transport Lighting Act, 1927, in sub-paragraph (b) of paragraph (iii) (which provides that agricultural vehicles and implements need not carry a separate lamp showing a red light to the rear) the word 'separate' shall be omitted. (2) In section eight of the said Act of 1927, in paragraph (i) of the proviso to subsection (1) (which provides, in the case of a vehicle drawing one or more other vehicles, that if the distance between any such vehicles exceeds five feet each vehicle shall be required to carry the same lamps as if it were not drawing or being drawn) for the words from 'any such' to 'being drawn' there shall be substituted the words 'any two of the vehicles exceeds five feet, then as respects any light to be shown to the rear the foremost of the two vehicles, and as respects any light to be shown to the front the rearmost of the two vehicles shall be required to carry the same lamps as if the one were not drawing the other'. 9.—(1) In subsection (1) of section two of the Act of 1930 (which provides for the classification of motor vehicles) the words from 'Motor vehicles' to 'classes' shall cease to have effect, and in each paragraph of that subsection the words from 'that is to say' to the end of the paragraph shall be construed as a definition for the purposes of that Act of the expression immediately preceding those words; and in paragraphs (d) to (f) of the said subsection (1) for the words 'classified under this section as' there shall be substituted the words 'falling within the definition contained in this subsection of'. (2) Subsection (2) of the said section two (which empowers regulations to be made subdividing classes of vehicles, and making different provisions with respect to each subdivision, and varying maximum or minimum weights fixed as respects any class) shall cease to have effect, but regulations under section thirty of the Act of 1930 may vary any of the maximum or minimum weights specified in the definitions contained in subsection (1) of the said section two, either generally or in the case of vehicles of any class or description specified in the regulations and cither for the purposes of the Act and of all regulations thereunder or for such of those purposes as may be so specified. (3) The Motor Vehicles (Definition of Motor Cars) Regulations, 1941 shall cease to have effect, but subject to the power conferred by the last foregoing sub-paragraph the definition of 'motor cars' in subsection (1) of section two of the Act of 1930 shall include vehicles constructed or adapted for use for the conveyance of goods or burden of any description—
  1. (a) which carry a container or containers for holding for the purpose of their propulsion any fuel that is wholly gaseous at sixty degrees Fahrenheit under a pressure of thirty inches of mercury, or plant and materials for producing such fuel, and of which the maximum weight unladen does not exceed three and a half tons,
  2. (b) which do not carry any such container, or plant and materials, as aforesaid, and of which the maximum weight unladen does not exceed three tons;
and in paragraph (b) of subsection (4) of section two of the Act of 1930 after the word 'load' there shall be inserted the words 'or goods or burden of any description'. (4) In subsection (3) of section four of the Act of 1930 (which provides for specifying in driving licences restrictions with respect to the driving of any class of vehicle) after the word 'class' there shall be inserted the words 'or description'. (5) Nothing in subsection (4) of section ten of the Act of 1930 (which empowers the Minister by regulation to vary the provisions of the First Schedule to that Act) shall be construed as limiting the powers conferred by sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph.") 10. In subsection (2) of section five of the Act of 1930 (which requires a licensing authority to refuse a driving licence if it appears from the application that the applicant suffers from any of the specified diseases and disabilities) after the word 'appears', where it first occurs, there shall be inserted the words 'or if on inquiry into other information the licensing authority are satisfied'.

11.45 p.m.

Mr. Molson

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

This Amendment consists of a number of unrelated paragraphs added to the Sixth Schedule of the Bill, which is the Schedule which enacts minor and consequential Amendments. I venture to suggest that we might answer any questions that are put about the details of them. The majority of them are purely drafting and none of them, I think I can assure the House, is of any importance.

Question put and agreed to.—[Special Entry.]

Further Lords Amendments agreed to: In page 48, line 13, leave out from beginning to "(which" in line 19 and insert: 4. In subsection (2) of section six of the Act of 1930".

In page 49, line 8, leave out from "Act" to end of line 17 and insert: in subsection (6) for the words from 'five pounds' to the end of the subsection there shall be substituted the words 'twenty pounds, and in the case of a second or subsequent conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds'".

In line 21, leave out from "and" to end of line 22 and insert: for the words from 'the offence of' to the end of the subsection there shall be substituted the words 'the provisions of this Part of this Act as to disqualification for holding or obtaining licences shall not apply to his conviction of that offence'".

In line 22, at end insert: 7. In section fourteen of the Act of 1930, in subsection (1) for the word 'footway' there shall be substituted the word 'footpath' and at the end of that section there shall be added the following subsection:— '(3) In this section the expressions "bridleway" and "footpath" have the same meanings as in the Road Traffic Act, 1956'.

In page 51, line 8, leave out "of" and insert "as to".

Lords Amendment: In line 8, at end insert: (4) In section seventy-one of the Act of 1930, in subsection (4), after the words 'conditions as to fitness' there shall be inserted the words 'or such of those conditions as are not dispensed with by an order of the Minister under section sixty-eight of this Act for the time being in force'.

Mr. Watkinson

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

This is consequential on paragraph 14 of the Sixth Schedule.

Lords Amendment: In page 51, line 33, leave out sub-paragraph (3) and insert: (3) Subject to the foregoing provisions of this paragraph, the rights conferred by the said section eighty-one to appeal if aggrieved by the imposition or attachment of a condition shall include rights to appeal against a refusal to impose or attach a condition or the imposition or attachment of a condition differing from that desired, and the rights conferred by that section to appeal if aggrieved by the variation of conditions shall include rights to appeal if aggrieved by the variation dffering from that desired.

Mr. Molson

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

This Amendment is designed to clarify the appeal rights against decisions of the traffic commissioners provided under Section 81 of the 1930 Act.

Question put and agreed to.—[Special Entry.]

Further Lords Amendments agreed to: In page 52, line 6, at end insert: 19. Subsection (2) of section one hundred and eleven of the Act of 1930 (which provides for consultation with representative organisations before the making of regulations under that Act) shall apply to the making of regulations under this Act or the Road Transport Lighting Acts, 1927 to 1953; and subsection (4) of that section, and subsection (3) of section twenty-six of the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933 (which provide that production of a copy of regulations purporting to be printed by the Government printers shall be evidence that the requirements of the Act as to the making and laying of regulations have been complied with) shall cease to have effect.

In line 23, at end insert: (2) Regulations under the said section sixteen may contain exemptions, applying in such cases and subject to such limitations as may be specified in the regulations, for vehicles used in the business of agriculture or vehicles used in the business of a travelling showman.

In line 28, at end insert: (3) Any such exemption or requirement as aforesaid contained in regulations under the said section sixteen in force at the coming into operation of this paragraph shall have effect as if made in the exercise of the powers conferred thereby.

In line 43, leave out "following provisions of this paragraph" and insert: provisions of the four next following subparagraphs".

In line 50, after "revoked" insert "or varied."

Lords Amendment: In page 53, line 17, at end insert: (6) The provisions of the four last foregoing sub-paragraphs shall apply in relation to such directions as are authorised by subsection (4) of section four of this Act as they apply in relation to directions that a length of road shall be deemed not to be a road in a built-up area. (7) For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that nothing in this paragraph applies to any length of trunk road. (8) In the application of this paragraph to Scotland, for any reference to the Minister there shall be substituted a reference to the Secretary of State.

Mr. Molson

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

Sub-paragraph (6) is needed because, without it, except on trunk roads and roads in the London traffic area, the Minister's powers in regard to the new 40 mile per hour speed limit which it is proposed to introduce by the Amendment to Clause 4, in page 5, line 23, would be limited to giving or withholding his consent to an Order.

Question put and agreed to.—[Special Entry.]

Further Lords Amendment agreed to: In page 53, line 22, at end insert: being an offence committed in respect of a motor vehicle.

Lords Amendment: In page 53, line 33, at end insert: 29. For subsection (1) of section three of the Road Traffic (Driving Licences) Act, 1936 (which provides that a driving licence granted on a test of competence to drive prescribed for a specified class or description of vehicles shall specify that class or description and that the person to whom it is granted shall be deemed not to be the holder of a driving licence for vehicles of any other class or description) there shall be substituted the following subsection:— '(1) A licence (other than a provisional licence) granted under Part I of the Road Traffic Act, 1930, shall specify whether the licence authorises the holder to drive motor vehicles of all classes or descriptions or of certain classes or descriptions only, and in the latter case—

  1. (a) the licence shall specify the classes or descriptions of vehicles which it authorises the holder to drive, and
  2. (b) the holder shall be deemed not to be the holder of a licence granted under that Part of that Act to drive motor vehicles of any other class or description.'"

Mr. Molson

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

These words are intended to facilitate the consolidation to which we all look forward.

Further Lords Amendment agreed to: In page 53, line 49, leave out "commencement of this Act" and insert: coming into operation of this paragraph".