Part 1: Haulage Policy Background Section 12: Licensing of operators in Northern Ireland
Section 12 amends the legislation of Northern Ireland, in similar ways to the amendment to legislation for Great Britain in section 11. The section inserts a new section 2A into the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act (Northern Ireland) 2010 (the "2010 Act") to allow the Department for Infrastructure to grant a temporary exemption to an operator established outside the United Kingdom from the requirement to hold an operator’s licence in an emergency or to allow some other special need to be dealt with. In effect, this allows exemptions from permits for foreign vehicles in the same way as section 3 does for UK vehicles.
	Subsections (2) to (4) of the inserted section 2A enable a temporary exemption to be granted by a notice in writing to the operator or by publishing a notice specifying the class of operators to which the temporary exemption applies. The notice must specify the vehicle or class of vehicles and the transport operation to which the exemption applies.
	Subsection (5) of section 12 amends section 3 of the 2010 Act in order to clarify that the power for the Department to grant an exemption from carrying an operator’s licence may be granted by publishing a notice.