Part 5: Road traffic Section 93: Removal of requirement to surrender licence where fixed penalty notice
This section relates to fixed penalties for traffic offences as provided for in Part III (fixed penalties) of the RTOA 1988. It removes from the fixed penalty process the need to produce a driving licence.
	Currently, under section 54 of the RTOA 1988 (notices on the spot etc.), a person (who is the holder of a licence) who has been stopped by a constable or a vehicle examiner for a fixed penalty offence which appeared to involve obligatory endorsement (without triggering disqualification for totting up 12 or more penalty points) could only be given a fixed penalty notice if they have produced for inspection and surrendered their licence. Where the person does not do so the person could be given an interim notice indicating that if they produced the interim notice and surrendered their licence to a specified police station, or sent them to a specified office of the Secretary of State where the interim notice was given by a vehicle examiner, they would be given a fixed penalty notice.
	Subsection (2) amends section 52 of the RTOA 1988 to add to the information to the driver that must be included in a fixed penalty notice where the notice relates to an offence involving obligatory endorsement. The notice must indicate that if the driver is to validly pay the fixed penalty the driver must include with the payment certain information as to the driver’s identity (see notes below on subsection (4)).
	Subsection (3) amends section 54 of the RTOA 1988 to omit all references to the need for the production, inspection and surrender of the licence, and to omit the process of giving interim notices. A fixed penalty notice may now be given in all cases without the need for licence production.
	Subsection (4) amends section 69 of the RTOA 1988 (payment of penalty) to require that in order to validly pay a fixed penalty in respect of an offence involving obligatory endorsement the payee must provide adequate information as to their identity to ensure that the endorsement is recorded against the correct person’s driving record.
	Subsection (4)(b) inserts a new subsection (2A) into section 69 to provide that, where payment is made by post, payment is only effectively made if the letter contains the payee’s name and date of birth and, where they are the holder of a licence, the licence number.
	Subsection (4)(c) inserts new subsections (3A) to (3D) into section 69 to provide that, where payment is made otherwise than by post, payment may only effectively be made if the payee provides the fixed penalty clerk, or the Secretary of State, with the payee’s name and date of birth and, where they are the holder of a licence, the licence number, or otherwise satisfies them as to the payee’s identity.