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Land Transport Act 1998

Enforcement of responsibilities - General enforcement powers

113: Enforcement officers may enforce transport legislation

You could also call this:

“Police and other officials can check and enforce road and transport rules”

When you see a person in uniform or showing proof that they’re an enforcement officer, they can enforce rules from several laws. These include the Local Government Act 1974, the Local Government Act 2002, the Road User Charges Act 2012, the Government Roading Powers Act 1989, the Railways Act 2005, the Land Transport Management Act 2003, and this Land Transport Act. They can also enforce rules and bylaws made under these laws.

These officers have special powers to help them do their job. They can ask you for your name, address, email, date of birth, job, and phone number if you’re on a road. They can also check and test parts of your vehicle or documents you’re carrying.

If a vehicle is blocking the road or a driveway, or if moving it would make the road safer or more convenient for others, the officer can move it or ask someone else to move it. They can tell drivers to move their vehicles off the road for the same reasons.

The officer can stop unlicensed drivers from driving and stop people from running transport services without a proper licence.

If the officer is directing traffic, they can tell drivers, people on animals, or pedestrians which way to go or to stop.

These rules apply not just on public roads, but also on any land controlled by the government or local councils.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM435099.

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Part 9 Enforcement of responsibilities
General enforcement powers

113Enforcement officers may enforce transport legislation

  1. An enforcement officer in uniform or in possession of a warrant or other evidence of their authority as an enforcement officer may enforce the provisions of—

  2. the Local Government Act 1974, the Local Government Act 2002, the Road User Charges Act 2012, the Government Roading Powers Act 1989, the Railways Act 2005, the Land Transport Management Act 2003, and this Act:
    1. regulations and rules and bylaws in force under any Acts mentioned in paragraph (a).

      1. Without limiting any other powers conferred on an enforcement officer, an enforcement officer, in enforcing any provisions referred to in subsection (1), may at any time—

      2. direct a person on a road (whether or not in charge of a vehicle) to give the person's full name, full address, electronic address (if the person has an electronic address), date of birth, occupation, and telephone number, or such of those particulars as the enforcement officer may specify, and give any other particulars required as to the person's identity, and (unless the person is for the time being detained or under arrest under any enactment) give such information as is within the person's knowledge and as may lead to the identification of the driver or person in charge of a vehicle:
        1. inspect, test, and examine—
          1. the brakes or any other part of a vehicle on a road or any associated equipment; or
            1. a land transport document, or a document resembling a land transport document, displayed or carried on the vehicle:
            2. if the enforcement officer believes on reasonable grounds that a vehicle on a road causes an obstruction in the road or to a vehicle entrance to any property or that the removal of the vehicle is desirable in the interests of road safety or for the convenience or in the interests of the public,—
              1. enter, or authorise another person to enter, the vehicle for the purpose of moving it or preparing it for movement; and
                1. move, or authorise another person to move, the vehicle to a place where it does not constitute a traffic hazard:
                2. direct the driver or person in charge of a vehicle on a road to remove the vehicle from the road or a specified part of a road, if the officer believes on reasonable grounds that it causes an obstruction in the road or to a vehicle entrance to any property or its removal is desirable in the interests of road safety or for the convenience or in the interests of the public:
                  1. forbid an unlicensed driver to drive a motor vehicle:
                    1. forbid a person who is operating a transport service without a licence to operate that transport service.

                      1. An enforcement officer in uniform or wearing a distinctive cap, hat, or helmet, with a badge of authority affixed to it, who is for the time being engaged in the regulation of traffic on a road, may—

                      2. direct a person using a vehicle or riding or driving an animal on the road to stop the vehicle or animal, as the case may be, or to cause it to proceed in or keep to a particular line of traffic or direction:
                        1. direct a pedestrian not to proceed across the road in contravention of a direction to stop given by the enforcement officer (whether given to pedestrians or to pedestrians and other traffic).

                          1. In paragraphs (c) and (d) of subsection (2), road includes any land vested in or under the control of the Crown or any local authority.

                          Compare
                          Notes
                          • Section 113(1): amended, on , by section 19(1) of the Land Transport (Road Safety) Amendment Act 2023 (2023 No 62).
                          • Section 113(1)(a): amended, on , by section 72 of the Land Transport Management Amendment Act 2013 (2013 No 35).
                          • Section 113(1)(a): amended, on , by section 94 of the Road User Charges Act 2012 (2012 No 1).
                          • Section 113(1)(a): amended, on , by section 67 of the Land Transport (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2011 (2011 No 13).
                          • Section 113(1)(a): amended, on , by section 35(1) of the Land Transport Amendment Act 2009 (2009 No 17).
                          • Section 113(1)(a): amended, on , by section 63(2) of the Public Transport Management Act 2008 (2008 No 87).
                          • Section 113(1)(a): amended, on , by section 50(1) of the Land Transport Management Amendment Act 2008 (2008 No 47).
                          • Section 113(1)(a): amended, on , by section 103(3) of the Railways Act 2005 (2005 No 37).
                          • Section 113(1)(a): amended, on , by section 90 of the Land Transport Management Act 2003 (2003 No 118).
                          • Section 113(1)(a): amended, on , by section 262 of the Local Government Act 2002 (2002 No 84).
                          • Section 113(2)(a): amended, on , by section 19(2) of the Land Transport (Road Safety) Amendment Act 2023 (2023 No 62).
                          • Section 113(2)(a): amended, on , by section 29 of the Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Act 2009 (2009 No 36).
                          • Section 113(2)(f): added, on , by section 62 of the Land Transport Amendment Act 2005 (2005 No 77).