IN THE NEWS


GREEDY GLASGOW HACKNEY DRIVER SUSPENDED FOR QUOTING DOUBLE FARES WITHOUT A METER


A Glasgow taxi driver has been accused of “greed” after quoting people double the price for fares without the meter. Complaints were made to Glasgow council’s taxi and private hire enforcement unit about Arsalan Khan trying to charge passengers too much in the city. One passenger said they were asked to pay £25 for a journey which is normally £13 maximum, which was described as a “rip-off.” Khan faced another complaint over his “outrageous behaviour” as he quoted a price of £25 with the meter turned off. The customer disagreed with the charge.


Another was told by Khan that a £12 trip would be £35 and could only be paid in cash. Appearing before a licensing and regulatory committee last month, Khan said his card machine had not been working. He said he was new to being a taxi driver and pointed out that it had been really “busy” at the time of the incidents. Khan told the committee he got his taxi “recently” and was a “new driver” and was unsure of regulations.


The meeting heard that Khan received three complaints previously, which brings the total


amount to six. He previously worked as a private hire driver, it is understood. Committee chair Alex Wilson said: “You are here again. You don’t learn your lesson. “You doubled the price on every single job complained about here. “That is just greed. You can’t con your passengers out of money.” Councillor Wilson added: “These people want to go home and get home at the right price.” Councillor Kevin Lalley said this type of behaviour gives taxi drivers a “bad name.” The committee suspended Khan’s licence.


ASYLUM SEEKERS BANNED FROM USING TAXIS/PHVs FOR MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS SAYS HOME SECRETARY


Asylum seekers have been banned from using taxis for most medical journeys, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced. Under the new rules, taxi use for medical travel will be restricted to “exceptional” cases such as physical disability, pregnancy or serious illness - and these will require government approval. Ms Mahmood made the announcement after a BBC investigation found “widespread” use of taxis by asylum seekers, including for long journeys - with one case involving a 250-mile trip to see a GP. According to reports, transport for asylum seekers has cost the government an average of almost £16m a year. All service providers will be required to stop using taxis


PHTM DECEMBER 2025 for medical journeys from


February next year and the government is now working to help introduce alternatives such as public transport. “This government inherited Conservative contracts that are wasting billions of taxpayers’ hard- earned cash,” the home secretary said. “I am ending the unrestricted use of taxis by asylum seekers for hospital appointments, auth- orising them only in the most exceptional circumstances.” Cabbies say the system was open to “abuse”, accusing sub- contractors of inflating mileage, for instance by dispatching drivers over long distances to perform much shorter journeys. A subcontractor in south-east London told the BBC his company


would charge the Home Office about £1,000 a day for doing as many as 15 drop-offs from a hotel where asylum seekers were staying to a GP surgery about two miles away. One driver said that he had been dispatched from Gatwick to take an asylum seeker more than 50 miles away in Reading to an appointment only 1.5 miles from his hotel. A second driver was reportedly sent from Heathrow, about 30 miles away, to bring the same man back


from the


appointment. The measures are part of a broader crackdown on waste in asylum accommodation and transport contracts, which the government said had already saved more than £74m in accommodation costs.


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