The Law
12.Section 13A(2) of the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995 provides some of the requirements that must be satisfied for the grant of standard licences:13A.Requirements for standard licences(1) The requirements of this section are set out in subsections (2) and (3).(2) The first requirement is that the traffic commissioner is satisfied that the applicant—(a) has an effective and stable establishment in Great Britain (as determined in accordance with Article 5 of the 2009 Regulation),(b) is of good repute (as determined in accordance with paragraphs 1 to 5 of Schedule 3),(c) has appropriate financial standing (as determined in accordance with Article 7 of the 2009 Regulation), and(d) is professionally competent (as determined in accordance with paragraphs 8 to 13 of Schedule 3). …………………………13.The TC may revoke a licence once granted under section 26 of the Act (discretionary revocation). The relevant sections of section 26 of the 1995 Act as relied upon in the Traffic Commissioner’s decision are included below: “(1) Subject to the following provisions of this section and the provisions of section 29, a traffic commissioner may direct that an operator's licence be revoked, suspended or curtailed (within the meaning given in subsection (11)) on any of the following grounds— … (b) that the licence-holder has contravened any condition attached to the licence; … (e) that the licence-holder made, or procured to be made, for the purposes of— (i) his application for the licence, (ii) an application for the variation of the licence, or (iii) a request for a direction under paragraph 1 or 3 of Schedule 4, a statement of fact that, whether to his knowledge or not, was false, or a statement of expectation that has not been fulfilled; (f) that any undertaking recorded in the licence has not been fulfilled; … (h) that since the licence was issued or varied there has been a material change in any of the circumstances of the licence-holder that were relevant to the issue or variation of the licence;”14.Mandatory revocation by the TC is enabled by section 27(1) of the 1995 Act:27 Revocation of standard licences.(1) A traffic commissioner shall direct that a standard licence be revoked if at any time it appears to him that (a)the licence-holder no longer satisfies the requirements of section 13A(2), or(b)the transport manager designated in accordance with Article 4 of the 2009 Regulation no longer satisfies the requirements of section 13A(3).15.The burden of proof during a PI requires the Traffic Commissioner to be satisfied of the grounds for revocation as noted by Rix LJ in
- DECISION OF THE UPPER TRIBUNAL
- Subject matter
- The Appeal
- The TC’s decision
- The Grounds of Appeal
- The Hearing and the Appellants’ submissions
- The Law
- Muck It Ltd and Others v. Secretary of State for Transport
- Emphasis Added
- In our view before answering the ‘Bryan Haulage question’ it will often be helpful to pose a preliminary question, namely: how likely is it that this operator will, in future, operate in compliance with the operator’s licensing regime
- An Appellant, if he is to succeed, must persuade the appeal court or tribunal not merely that a different view of the facts from that taken below is reasonable and possible, but that there are objective grounds upon which the court ought to conclude that a different view is the right one
- it concludes that the process of reasoning, and the application of the relevant law, require it to adopt a different view. The burden which an Appellant assumes is to show that the case falls within this latter category
- Discussion and analysis
- Remedy
- Judge Rupert Jones