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Disqualified drivers targeted by new safety laws
Disqualified drivers will be kept off UK and Irish roads by new regulations laid before Parliament today.
The move will mean that UK drivers disqualified for an offence in the Republic of Ireland will no longer escape that punishment when they return home. Likewise, disqualifications earned by Irish drivers while in the UK will be recognised and enforced when they return to Ireland.
The measures are the result of a pioneering deal agreed between the British, Irish and Northern Ireland Ministers in Belfast in June and represent the first practical step of its kind in Europe.
Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said:
"Britain has one of the best road safety records in the world but we need to do everything we can to improve even further.
"These measures will keep dangerous drivers off our roads by ensuring that disqualified drivers are not able to escape their punishment."
The agreement was the first to be drawn up under the terms of the 1998 European Convention on driving disqualifications.
Regulations to bring the agreement into law in Great Britain were laid before Parliament today and mutual recognition of disqualifications between the three administrations should be in place by Spring 2009.
Notes to Editors
1. The agreement is within the framework established by the 1998 Convention on Driving Disqualifications. We believe that this is the first such instance of international cooperation within that framework.
2. In 1998, the UK and Ireland along with all thirteen (at the time) other EU Member States of the European Union signed the international Convention on driving disqualification (98/C 216/01). The Convention intends to ensure that drivers disqualified from driving in a Member State other than their normal place of residence should not, on their return home, escape the consequences of that disqualification.
3. The Convention provides for six agreed kinds of conduct which will be internationally recognised for the purposes of driving disqualification. The Convention automatically comes into force across all Member States only when all signatory States have ratified it. However, the Convention allows one EU Member State to recognise another's driving disqualifications before all Member States have ratified.
4. The agreed behaviours covered by the 1998 Convention include: reckless or dangerous driving; hit-and-run driving; driving whilst under the influence of alcohol or drugs; speeding; and driving whilst disqualified. Today's agreement does not apply to disqualifications under the totting up of penalty points procedure.
5. The UK and Ireland have already implemented the necessary primary legislation to allow for ratification (in the UK through the Crime (International Co-operation) Act 2003, and in Ireland under the Road Traffic Act 2002).
6. Mutual recognition of driving disqualification came into effect between Britain and Northern Ireland on 11 October 2004 and was extended to include the Isle of Man on 23 May 2005.
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