[2024] UKUT 132 (AAC)

Section 17(1) of the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981 (“1981 Act”) provides as follows:

“(1)

A traffic commissioner must revoke a standard licence if it appears to the commissioner at any time that –

…(b) the transport manager designated in accordance with Article 4 of the 2009 Regulation no longer satisfies the requirements of section 14ZA(3).”

Subsequent provisions of section 17 of the 1981 Act provide the legal basis for what, conventionally, is known as a ‘period of grace’:

“(1A) Before revoking a standard licence under subsection (1), the traffic commissioner may serve on the holder a notice setting a time limit, in accordance with Article 13.1 of the 2009 Regulation, for the holder to rectify the situation.

(1B) If the holder rectifies the situation within the time limit set under subsection (1A), the traffic commissioner must not revoke the licence.”

Article 13.1 of Regulation (EC) No 1071/2009 provides as follows:

“Where a competent authority establishes that an undertaking runs the risk of no longer fulfilling the requirements laid down in Article 3, it shall notify the undertaking thereof. Where a competent authority establishes that one or more of those requirements is no longer satisfied, it may set one of the following time limits for the undertaking to rectify the situation:

(a)

a time limit not exceeding 6 months, which may be extended by 3 months in the event of the death or physical incapacity of the transport manager, for the recruitment of a replacement transport manager where the transport manager no longer satisfies the requirement as to good repute or professional competence…”.

In Blackmur t/a IJB Transport [2021] UKUT 0312 (AAC), the Upper Tribunal held as follows (emphasis in original):

“17.

Once a [period of grace] has expired without the operator complying with its terms, a traffic commissioner shall revoke the licence when the matter is referred to him.”