Book Review - Wheatley's Road Traffic Law in Scotland

Wheatley’s Road Traffic Law in Scotland, 7th Edition, by Andrew Brown KC and Craig Findlater (Bloomsbury, 2024, ISBN 9781526526601, £115)

The lot of the modern motorist is not always a happy one. Driving has become increasingly more restricted and complicated, with fewer places to park, lower speed limits and the need to navigate man-made hazards and obstacles such as speed bumps and the ironically named traffic-calming islands that are often embellished with bollards. Some of these measures can seem puzzling, such as the supposedly environmentally motivated closure of a lane to cars, thereby requiring them to detour, spending more time on the road and emitting fumes and noise pollution for longer. Such elements of daily driving are of course underpinned by a plethora of legislation that has been enacted to accompany the Road Traffic Act 1988. There are plenty of ways in which the law might be broken.

Wheatley’s Road Traffic Law in Scotland was first published in 1989, when John Wheatley was a sheriff in Perth. This is not a treatise on delict but a book aimed at those practising in criminal law. It has become the standard textbook on the subject, with reference to it being made in various High Court decisions. The 6th edition was published in December 2018. Andrew Brown KC has been authoring editions of this publication for many years and he is now joined by Craig Findlater, Advocate. It is an excellent and practical study and guide in an area of law that is technical and ever evolving – an area with such a diverse array of legislation that it would be almost impossible for a practitioner without limitless time to find the law by a perusal of Acts, regulations and case law alone. 

Gordon on Criminal Law notes that the number of provisions presented by the 1988 Act as amended could not be covered in a general text, and refers readers to Wheatley and Wilkinson, noting that only the former concerns Scotland. This is important, because there are key differences in the law of the two jurisdictions; it’s not simply the case that since 2014 the drink driving limit has been lower on the north side of the border.

The authors of Wheatley observe that there had already been a divergence in the development of case law regarding information provided by police as regards medical reasons for providing a blood sample.

Important elements of Scottish road traffic law are distinct from those elsewhere in the UK, and Wheatley is an indispensable guide for all practitioners in the field of criminal law here, although it will also be of enormous use to those who practice civil and chambers work and whose clients may seek general advice having been charged with speeding or using their mobile phone while driving. Indeed, such is the prevalence of motoring that there are even those among our own ranks who have found themselves in predicaments such as a camera-festooned bus lane from which there is little or no escape.  

The book is divided into nine chapters, with indices of case law and another containing almost 70 statutes and 100 statutory instruments. There are also tables of helpful information.

Of the 400 pages or thereabouts of text, more than 120 are devoted to the law of drink and drugs, with two chapters on the use of specimens and evidence in such proceedings. There are almost 40 pages on careless and dangerous driving, around 80 on other offences, about 110 on disqualification and around 20 on public service vehicles and carriage of goods by road. And almost 40 pages cover definitions alone. The tables are excellent, with very useful data relating to sentencing, a list of endorsement offence codes and a wealth of statistics including the alcohol content of beverages commonly drunk in Scotland. The law is stated as at August 2023.

It is easy and quick to find specific topics within the book. The index smoothly takes one to such sub-chapters as ‘Seatbelts and Protective Headgear’. There is another headed ‘Wheels and Tyres’, where the relevant parts of the Construction and Use regulations are quoted.

Although Wheatley touches on the common law in several chapters, this is essentially a work about legislation and its interpretation by the courts. At £115 the volume is excellent value and should be purchased by any practitioner who undertakes criminal law, or any lawyer who needs a comprehensive and practical guide to road traffic law.

Written by Andrew Stevenson, Secretary, Scottish Law Agents Society