Commentary on Sections Part 1: Traffic Officers.Background Section 9: Removal of certain vehicles by traffic officers
41.Section 9 modifies, in the case traffic officers, the Secretary of State's power under section 99 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to make regulations providing for the removal of vehicles obstructing the highway, or abandoned or broken down or dangerously or illegally parked.
42.Where under section 99 the Secretary of State makes regulations empowering traffic officers to remove such vehicles section 9 will enable consequential provisions to be included. In particular this would enable provisions for the disposal of any such vehicles and for the recovery of the costs relating to their removal storage and disposal. Such provision would be likely to be by way of amendment to sections 100 to 102 of the 1984 Act. Subsection (2) would enable this.
43.Regulations made under section 99 of the 1984 Act are, by section 134(3) of that Act, subject to the negative resolution procedure.
Section 10: Offences
44.Section 10 makes it an offence to assault, resist, wilfully obstruct, or impersonate a traffic officer or fail to give a name and address to a traffic officer when lawfully demanded (as to which see subsections (4)and (5)). The penalties for these offences vary with the offence and are set out in the section. This provides for penalties of fines not exceeding respectively level 5 (£5,000) or level 3 (£1,000) on the standard scale and also for imprisonment.