ALL THINGS LICENSING
In essence, 2025 was a year of regulatory tightening and and economic pressure, pushing the trade towards greater standardisation and technological adoption, while simultaneously grappling with rising costs and a persistent driver shortage.
The start of a year of change
With the Bill now moving to Committee Stage, peers are expected to table amendments seeking greater clarity on the scope of licensing powers, the balance between national and local regulation, and the enforcement mechanisms available to strategic authorities. The debate underscored the broader tension between consistency and local control that continues to shape England’s devolution landscape.
Last month also saw the Government formally launch its much anticipated Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, appointing Baroness Anne Longfield CBE to lead a three-year investigation into systemic failures that enabled child sexual exploitation across multiple regions. Crucially, the inquiry will examine how taxi licensing loopholes contributed to abuse, following stark findings in Baroness Casey’s National Audit.
Announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, the inquiry will be chaired by
Baroness Longfield,
supported by Zoë Billingham CBE and Eleanor Kelly CBE - experts in children’s rights, policing oversight, and local government accountability. The panel has full powers under the Inquiries Act to compel evidence, investigate institutional failures, and recommend reforms. The inquiry will be trauma-informed and victim-centred, with local investigations - including in Oldham - targeting areas of suspected cover-ups or negligence.
A key focus will be Chapter 7 of Baroness Casey’s audit, which identified taxi licensing as a critical vulnerability in safeguarding systems. Grooming gangs exploited regulatory gaps, using taxis to transport victims to abuse locations. Survivors reported instances where drivers facilitated or ignored exploitation.
The audit revealed that licensing inconsistencies across councils allowed perpetrators to obtain licences in areas with lax standards, then operate elsewhere - undermining local safeguards. In response, the government has pledged to legislate to close this loophole, ensuring drivers operate under the rules of the area they serve.
PHTM JANUARY 2026
In this vein, and on the back of December’s IoL’s Artificial Intelligence in Licensing Conference, we start to look ahead at what 2026 may bring. The role of AI in licensing is something which both regulated and regulators will need to embrace and be cautious of and is definitely worthy of a future article in PHTM in 2026.
Keeping with the theme of the key development of 2025, the Parliamentary Inquiry is expected to publish its findings, with the government expected to respond. What the national minimum standards may look like may also be the subject of consultation.
So, if your New Year’s resolution is to ensure you keep on top of licensing updates and matters affecting the trade, I would again encourage members of the trade to join the IoL:
www.instituteoflicensing.org.
Finally, it is with much personal sadness, shock and a sense of disbelief that I pay tribute to my colleague Phil Bates, who died suddenly and unexpectedly on Sunday 7th December 2025. Phil was a long-standing member of the IoL, a member of our Taxi Special Interest Group and our working group responsible for the original Suitability Guidance (2018) and its revision published in 2024. He was a regular trainer for the IoL, and was a speaker at the IoL’s National Training Conference in November, speaking with me on two occasions less than two weeks prior to his death.
A 30-year Hampshire Constabulary veteran, Phil retired in 2012 as Southampton’s Sector Inspector. His partnership-led approach reduced city-centre violent crime by 67%, winning the 2011 Tilley Award. Later, as Southampton City Council’s Licensing Manager, he pioneered the Taxi Camera project. He was a firm but fair licensing manager, and applied the 4 Es approach to licensing: Engage, Explain, Encourage and only when necessary, Enforce.’ He retired in 2025, but remained actively involved in licensing and was increasingly engaged in training projects.
Phil was well known to many of us at the IoL, and he will be very sadly missed as both a friend and colleague. My sincere condolences go to his widow Corinne, his family, friends and colleagues at Southampton.
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