I'm not sure why the judges considered this as a loophole in the beginning. Motorist are, if proved, are being charged for using the phone to make a call or for other interactive communication. Surely if you take a photograph and show it to somebody that is an interactive communication.
Of course no-one should use a phone when driving, I turn mine off. I'm unsure about this 'even touching' a phone, though. I'd to brake hard once and mine slid out of my handbag - so at the next traffic lights to stop me, I put it back. Do you mean to say that someone would be fined for doing that?
Appropos. - virtually every tractor driver around here (and there are a lot) uses the phone whilst trundling along. Try seeing the number-plate through the mud!
//Surely if you take a photograph and show it to somebody that is an interactive communication.//
No it isn't. The High Court was quite specific when it was asked, by the DPP, to interpret the statute. They did so following a successful appeal in the Crown Court by Ramsey Barreto against his conviction in the Magistrates' Court for using his mobile phone to film an accident as he was driving past: