IoL - ALL THINGS LICENSING NEW TAXI
LAWS...NEW TAXI
LAWS...NEW TAXI LAWS
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: this article represents the views of the author which are not presented as the views of the Institute of Licensing.
Using a well-known transport analogy; a person waits ages at a bus stop for a bus to arrive and then two turn up at once. This is the case with taxi legislation with two new pieces of law coming along in the past couple of months.
Whilst many of us waiting for improvements to legislation governing the taxi and private hire sector, which is hopeless- ly out of date, are likely to be disappointed, the two recent Acts nevertheless provide important and improved protec- tions for all users by legislating requirements upon local authorities which have not fully implemented guidance and best practice already available to them; and new require- ments upon all licensed drivers previously only reserved to carrying of disabled customers in specified circumstances.
Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Safeguarding and Road Safety) Act 2022
This Act received Royal Assent on 31 March 2022 and places new duties on taxi and PHV licensing authorities in England only. From 31 May 2022, if any licensing authority has certain road safety or safeguarding concerns about a driver licensed by another authority, they must provide relevant information to the authority that issued the licence.
In turn, any licensing authority provided with such informa- tion must consider whether to suspend or revoke the driver’s licence as a result of that information.
The Act defines a relevant concern as the driver having:
• committed a sexual offence (regardless of whether the person was charged with, prosecuted for or convicted of the offence)
• harassed another person
• caused physical or psychological harm to another person (regardless of whether the person was charged with, prosecuted for or convicted of the offence)
• committed an offence that involves a risk of causing physical or psychological harm to another person
• committed an offence under section 165, 168 or 170 of the Equality Act 2010 (regardless of whether the person was charged with, prosecuted for or convicted of the offence)
• did anything that constitutes unlawful discrimination or victimisation against another person for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010
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• threatened, abused or insulted another person • posed a risk to road safety while driving
• may be unsuitable to hold a taxi or PHV driver’s licence for other reasons related to the safeguarding of passen- gers or road safety
Furthermore, attempting to, or conspiring to commit the above offences, also constitutes a valid safeguarding or road safety concern.
This is not ground-breaking. Obviously before 31 May 2022 any licensing authority could have already provided informa- tion/concerns about a licence holder to the home authority to act upon. However, this is clearly not happening resulting in this duty is now being legislated with the aim of improving co-operation between local authorities when responding to drivers and vehicles working outside of their licensed area.
The Act also creates a two-way flow of information, as it requires the licensing authority receiving the information not only to consider whether to suspend or revoke the driver’s licence, but also within 20 working days of receiving the concerns, the licensing authority must inform, the licensing authority that reported the concerns whether it has sus- pended or revoked the driver’s licence (or intends to take this action) together with their reasons.
From my own experience, too often concerns have been reported to an issuing authority and there is little, if any, response about the outcome resulting from the information provided. Clearly this requirement will provide valuable feedback to the authority reporting concerns about activity in their areas, and will hopefully hold the ‘larger’ issuing authorities more accountable as to the actions of their licence holders.
In due course, the Act will also require licensing authorities in England to input, into a central database, instances where the authority has refused, suspended, or revoked a taxi or PHV driver’s licence because of certain safeguarding or road safety concerns.
The Act places a further requirement for a licensing author- ity to check the register before deciding whether to grant or renew a driver licence, and if there is a relevant entry, the authority will be required to contact the recording authority to request the relevant information. The decision-making licensing authority is then required to have regard to the information provided when making their decision.
The recording and checking of refusals and revocation is already possible using the National Anti Fraud Network (NAFN) NR3 database, however as this duty is now legislat- ed it is clear that some authorities haven’t made use of this system, which serves as a vital tool to ensure that drivers refused/revoked in one area are not applying to a different area to work.
JULY 2022
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