ALL THINGS LICENSING
Article by Mike Smith, Senior Specialist for Licensing and Community Safety at Guildford Borough Council and Vice-Chair of the Institute of Licensing South East Region.
Please note that this article represents my own views and are not presented as the views of the IoL or Guildford Borough Council.
CROSS-BORDER HIRE – HOW LOCAL AUTHORITIES CAN WORK TOGETHER TO TAKE BACK CONTROL
In November’s issue of PHTM I promised to examine the issue of cross-border hire and potential ways in which local authorities could work together to reduce the impact of this issue. Taxi and private hire licensing is intended to be a local issue for local authorities to administer and enforce against. However, for many local authorities, including my own which is inundated with PHVs
licensed
elsewhere, the licensing regime certainly doesn’t feel local as envisioned.
THE CROSS-BORDER PROBLEM
Out-of-area working takes place in one of two ways. Either a local authority licenses large numbers of drivers and vehicles which then go on to work outside of that area, or a local authority’s area is inundated with large numbers of licence holders from elsewhere.
This is seen as a problem by both local authorities and the trade in many areas because there are differences in standards, conditions and issues of enforcement. In cases where larger authorities offer a service to license vehicles which end up working some considerable distance away, it undermines this ‘local’ intention of the legislation as the many local authorities which have large numbers of vehicles working in their area which they do not license, receive no income and have no powers over huge numbers of drivers and vehicles working in their areas.
The two most recent publications from the Department for Transport concerning standard setting in the sector – the Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Standards (July 2021) and Draft Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Best Practice Guidance (March 2022) –
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both set out in very strong terms that safety is at the heart of the licensing regime.
However, where a taxi or private hire vehicle is being driven predominantly in another district, the local council has no powers to intervene if the driver contravenes any condition of the licence, provides a poor service to the passenger (or worse) or if the vehicle is not maintained to the standard required. Additionally, taxi and private hire drivers act as capable guardians, particularly in the night-time economy, and there have been many examples where the police have needed to trace a particular driver, often where limited details are provided, which is not possible if that driver is licensed away from the area they are working. The benefits of being locally licensed are clear to see when these important safety messages need to be distributed to the local trade quickly.
While there is now a legal duty to notify the issuing authority under the Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Safeguarding and Road Safety) Act 2022, still all that can be done to deal with a driver out of district is to write to the authority that issued the licence, where this is known.
The results of cross-border hire are well established and appear to fly directly in contraction to the Government’s position that safety and protection of both taxi users and drivers is the principal consideration of the licensing regime. Out-of-area working is not just a concern for local authorities, it can also be seen as unfair on the trade, as local drivers could face competition from drivers who may have paid cheaper licence fees or undergone less rigorous checks elsewhere. Furthermore, it is probably safe to say that while there few issues where licensing authorities and the trade agree, there does appear to be almost unanimous common ground over the increasing issue of cross-border hire.
So, with wholesale legislative reform looking very unlikely during my professional career, local authorities will have to use the powers at their disposal and work together in order to take back control.
This article therefore seeks to look at potential mechanisms for the control of drivers, vehicles and
DECEMBER 2022 PHTM
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