PROTECT OUR INDUSTRY! WHAT ABOUT OTHER PROTECTION


We still find it hard to believe that safeguarding measures such as protection screens, the use of internal CCTV and other protective measures have not been allowed, and the mandatory wearing of face coverings specifically excluded travelling in taxis and private hire vehicles.


NPHTA STEPPED IN!


We worked with the DfT and TRL to change the guidance on protection screen installations, and then Eddie Grice, JP Duffy and the team from the SPHA took it a stage further and got the agreement to leave them in permanently if required.


We made the necessary changes to the


requirement to wear face coverings to include taxi and private hire passengers.


We replied to the Best Practice Consultation to further clarify the use of CCTV and tinted window restrictions, and we are now pleased to see that where there used to be many local authorities that did not mandate or allow CCTV to be used inside vehicles, this is now down to less than three local authorities throughout the UK.


WHAT ABOUT THE COSTS


As we see with local community CCTV schemes, street level CCTV is funded by local and national sources, so what exactly is the difference here? Public safety is public safety, regardless of how or where it is installed.


CCTV in taxi and private hire vehicles is not to prevent shoplifting, it is not to catch thieves, it is as advertised and consulted on by local authorities, “in the interest of public safety and protection”; since this is the primary responsibility of the local authority? Is this not the introduction to every licensing policy and conditions, in fact this was the introduction to the latest Statutory Standards? Surely public safety is worth funding?


AWESOME WORK


• York and Telford councils both obtained funding for CCTV in full.


PHTM JANUARY 2023


• Rossendale council gave free renewal plates and £200 towards the cost of CCTV.


• Herefordshire and Guildford councils have both committed to keep searching for funding to support the trade.


• Leeds council offered match funding up to £250 towards the cost and is now applying again for funding.


MANDATORY OR VOLUNTARY?


The preference is voluntary. Everyone has a right to freedom of choice, but there simply must be a national standard on this subject, which many have already adopted, not just highlighting a link to the ICO, but actually explaining the regulations.


THERE MUST BE A STANDARD!


• For those who have reached out, looking for the best, most up to date and accurate criteria for in-vehicle CCTV, thank you.


• For those who have not, you have left yourselves wide open to allowing non-compliant dashcams to be used to record internally. This is a risk under UK GDPR, this risk is your fault!


• Those who do not allow audio at all, you are excluding a vital component of the system and the protection it can and should offer. Those who have timed audio, you are placing your drivers at a higher risk, since the repeat activation of the audio is potentially fuelling the fire.


• Those who do not allow the monitor as a live active deterent, why not? It is not a distraction, it can be switched off when not needed. Having just a camera and nothing else is a massive loss of a vital deterent as the presence of a monitor offers an important means of discouraging would-be attackers when they can see their ugly mug on the screen - it will hopefully make them think again.


DISCUSSION TIME IS OVER - TALK IS CHEAP YOUR LICENSEES ARE UNDER ATTACK THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW SO FIND THE FUNDING


YOUR LICENCE HOLDERS NEED PROTECTION 17


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