Making admissions
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Can you tell me if the police have any right to inquire whether a bus operator had a vehicle in a particular road at a given time and, if he had, give its registration number?
We were asked for such information after it was claimed one of our buses might have caught the rear of a parked car even though there were no witnesses.
A There is no law which gives the police power to ask the questions mentioned so if you declined to answer them you would commit no offence.
In the circumstances described the police were obviously seeking admissions of facts they were unable to prove. Your admissions could then be used against yourself and your driver.
But one provision you might bear in mind is Section 171 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. It states that to determine if a vehicle was being driven without third-party insurance on any occasion when the driver was required to produce a certificate of insurance, the owner of the vehicle must give such information as he may be required by, or on behalf of, a chief officer of police.
Clearly, this power is dependant on the driver having been required to produce a certificate. So his identity, that of the vehicle, and the circumstances relating to the use of the vehicle, would already be known to the police.