Legal i

L e g a l EYE

Motoring Defence Solicitors are road traffic lawyers specialising in drink and drug driving offences. Based out of their central London offices, they provide free advice on a range of offences to motorists nationwide. You can contact Neil Sargeant for free on 0800 433 2880 or visit the website at www.drinkdrugdriving.co.uk.

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Planning a journey outside of the UK?

There have been two notable updates to the rules around UK licence holders driving in the European Union since we last updated readers, following Brexit. Since the end of summer 2021, your vehicle will need a UK sticker instead of a GB sticker when driving abroad and you do not need to carry a green card to drive in the EU (including Ireland), Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Serbia, or Switzerland.

If, however, your number plate includes the UK identifier with the Union Jack, you do not need a UK sticker. Similarly, you do not need a UK sticker or number plate to drive in Ireland.

It may be useful to highlight some of the lesser-known rules surrounding the identification of UK licence holders and vehicles whilst driving in the EU, implemented on 28 September 2021, including:

You will need to display a UK sticker clearly on the rear of your vehicle if your number plate has any of the following: • a GB identifier with the Union flag • a Euro symbol • a national flag of England, Scotland or Wales • numbers and letters only, with no flag or identifier.

If you are driving in Malta, Spain, or Cyprus, you must display a UK sticker, no matter what is on your number plate.

For those not travelling so light, you must register any non-commercial trailer over 3,500kg gross weight and all must display their own registration plate and have a trailer registration certificate that can be shown to a foreign authority on request.

All travel within these countries requires trailers to be registered: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Monaco,

Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine.

It is certainly worth checking for updates in respect of the requirements of each country prior to travel. All vehicles clearly need to be adequately insured and a Green card, proving that you are insured, may still be needed to travel, for example, in the Ukraine, whilst in neighbouring Slovakia it is not required. Our advice is to check with the embassy website of the countries that you wish to visit before travelling.

Your insurer will provide you with a green card and both electronic and paper versions are available. For vehicles towing trailers or caravans, you will need additional green cards for each vehicle. Green cards may also be required to be shown at the border when moving between countries, or if you are stopped by the police. Green cards must be shown in the relevant countries if you are involved in any kind of road traffic accident. It is advisable to always take your Great Britain or Northern Ireland driving licence with you to drive abroad. If your driving licence is about to expire, you will need to apply for a replacement with sufficient time to receive it back before you travel abroad. Although International Driving Permits (IDP) are largely noncompulsory in 2022 throughout the EU, there are still exceptions to that rule, and you may need a separate IDP for each country you are travelling through. For drivers hiring or leasing a vehicle in the UK, before travelling within the EU, you will need a VE103 certificate to be kept in the vehicle at all times. If any part of your journey involves hiring a car whilst abroad, it is advisable to create a vehicle check code before travelling, via the Direct Gov website, which will enable you to view or share your driving licence information with anyone requesting to check your driver record. The code is valid for 21 days. Neil Sargeant