For the second time in three months a driver has avoided penalty points by receiving a 24-hour driving ban from the same judge. This will come as a surprise to those who believed that the Government had closed off this particular loophole last year as part of the Road Traffic Act 2024.
However, a commencement order for the section covering ancillary disqualification– as the practice is known – has yet to issue from the Minister for Transport. Under the law, as it still stands, a driver can avoid penalty points if a court agrees to disqualify them from driving instead. No minimum disqualification period is specified and it is left to judges to decide what is appropriate. In the cases highlighted this week, the judge in question deemed 24 hours to be sufficient.
Judicial discretion is integral to the legal system and is necessary to ensure that punishments are appropriate both to the nature of the offence and the circumstances of the individual.
An issue that often arises in the case of penalty points is the wider consequences for drivers of being automatically off the road for six months if they accumulate 12 penalty points within a three-year period.
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The yet to be commenced amendment sets a minimum period of six months for ancillary disqualification, effectively negating the benefit of seeking one.
It is worth noting that the judge in question asked in court whether or not the change in the law had come into effect before making the most recent ancillary disqualification. The presumption being that he would not have proceeded if the commencement order had been issued.
The Department of Transport said on Monday that the commencement delay relates to technical issues relating to how the provision will work in practice. It said a commencement order will now be presented to the Minister for signature before the end of the month.
This is to be welcomed but it is unfortunate that the department appears to have been embarrassed into action.
