Road Legal

Laws concerning a driver’s responsibilities and liabilities on UK roads are enshrined in the Road Traffic Act 1988, as amended by the Road  Traffic Act 1991.

As well as focusing on dangerous driving committed by all drivers, the act also:

• Clarifies for haulage operators and LGV drivers what enforcement agencies' powers are
• Lists where LGVs can and cannot park
• Covers plated weights for the purposes of goods vehicle examinations
• Stipulates when a vehicle examiner has the power to prohibit the driving of LGVs
• Includes an operator’s duty to inspect, and keep records of inspections of, goods vehicles

The 1991 amendments came about following a Road Traffic Law review in 1988 – commonly known as the North Report – which reflected concerns about the way in which motoring offences were being dealt with by the criminal justice system.

The report's conclusions made clear that the law surrounding “bad driving” was defective and should be reformed. Section 1 of the 1991 Road Traffic Act formulated these bad driving offences so that dangerous drivers could be more readily identified and punished.

A Transport Select Committee report into Traffic Law and its Enforcement in 2004 concluded that the law on driving offences needed radical overhaul.