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    1.    These Regulations further amend the Motor Vehicles (Type Approval) (Great Britain) Regulations 1984.

Low volume type approval
    2.    The amendments enable Minister's approval certificates to be issued under section 58 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 with respect to vehicles that do not meet all of the normal type approval requirements. Concessions are made in relation to the following subject matters:
    noise and silencers;

    seats and anchorages;

    interior fittings;

    wiper and washer systems; and

    defrosting and demisting systems.

    3.    However, the number of certificates that can be issued each year on the basis of the concessions, with respect to vehicles of the same or similar model and manufactured by the same manufacturer, is limited to 500. Provision is made for vehicles manufactured by different companies in the same group and to prevent certificates of conformity being issued under section 55 of the Act. A "low volume vehicle" is broadly a vehicle to which the concessions are available.

    4.    Where a Minister's approval certificate is issued on the basis of the concessions or if an applicant requests a certificate on the basis of a vehicle being a low volume type approval vehicle, the certificate has to be in a form prescribed for the purpose.

Exhaust emissions
    5.    By virtue of S.I. 1992/1341 certain vehicles had to meet, as from the 31st December 1992, the exhaust emissions requirements set by Council Directive 91/441/EEC before they could be registered.

    6.    These Regulations exempt, until 31st December 1993, the compulsory application of the requirements in relation to a limited class of vehicles.

    7.    In order for a vehicle to have the benefit of the exemption it must satisfy the following basic requirements:


(a)  it must have been manufactured on or after the 1st September 1990 and before the 1st September 1992;



(b)  a certificate of conformity or a Minister's approval certificate must have been issued in respect of it before the 31st December 1992 on the basis of it conforming with a type of vehicle approved by the Secretary of State under the Road Traffic Act 1988 before the 1st July 1992; and



(c)  it must have been in the territory of a member state of the European Community at some time before the 31st December 1992.

    8.    The number of vehicles that can have the benefit of the exemption is limited in the case of vehicles produced by any one manufacturer to a figure not exceeding 10% of all the vehicles manufactured by that manufacturer that are registered between the 31st December 1991 and the 30th December 1992. If on the 31st December 1992 the number of unregistered vehicles made by a manufacturer which would otherwise have had the benefit of the exemption exceeds the 10% limit, the vehicles which have the benefit of the exemption are the first 10% to have been manufactured.

    9.    S.I. 1992/2161 amended regulation 4 of the 1984 Regulations so that the type approval requirements for a vehicle would generally be those which applied to it when it was manufactured. These Regulations go on to ensure that the exhaust emission requirements introduced by Council Directive 91/441/EEC apply to certain non-exempt vehicles regardless of the date of manufacture.

Seat belts and anchorages
    10.    S.I. 1992/1341 amended the 1984 Regulations so as to remove some options for meeting the type approval requirements relating to seat belts and anchorages as from 1st July 1992. However, an exception was made for vehicles of a type approved before that date. The exception was inadvertently removed by S.I. 1992/2161. The effect of those amendments as read with regulation 4(3) of the 1984 Regulations would have been that the options would not have been available in relation to any vehicle manufactured after 1st January 1993. These Regulations restore the exception.

Copies of the EEC Directives and EEC Regulations which are relevant to the Regulations can be obtained from Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Council Directive91/441/EEC mentioned above further amended Council Directive 70/220/EEC. The details of Directive 70/220/EEC and of the amending Directives are set out below.
Table

Principal Instrument	Relevant Amending Instrument
Council Directive 70/220/EEC of20 March 1970 (OJ No. L76, 6.4.70 p.1 — SE 1970 (I) p.171)	Council Directive 74/290/EEC of28 May 1974 (OJ No. L159, 15.6.74, p.61)
	Commission Directive 77/102/EEC of30 November 1976 (OJ No. L32, 3.2.77, p.32)
	Commission Directive 78/665/EEC of14 July 1978 (OJ No. L223, 14.8.78, p.48)
	Council Directive 83/351/EEC of16 June 1983 (OJ No. L197, 20.7.83, p.1)
	Council Directive 88/76/EEC of3 December 1987 (OJ No. L36, 9.2.88, p.1)
	Council Directive 88/436/EEC of16 June 1988 (OJ No. L214, 6.8.88, p.1)
	Council Directive 89/458/EEC of18 July 1989 (OJ No. L226, 3.8.89, p.1)
	Commission Directive 89/491/EEC of17 July 1989 (OJ No. L238, 15.8.89, p.43)
	Council Directive 91/441/EEC of26 June 1991 (OJ No. L242, 30.8.91, p.1)