IoL - ALL THINGS LICENSING TAXI AND PRIVATE HIRE
BEST PRACTICE GUIDANCE CONSULTATION
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.
The much anticipated and long awaited update to the ‘Best Practice Guidance’ issued to local authorities has been published for consultation by the Department for Transport. The DfT has issued best practice guidance on taxi and private hire vehicle licensing since 2006 with the last revision to the guidance issued in 2010. Clearly the sector has changed unrecognisably since then and it therefore unsurprising that the differences between the 2010 and 2022 versions are stark.
CURRENT GUIDANCE
The current guidance is 27 pages. The consultation ver- sion runs to 99 pages thus is nearly four times longer and according to the DfT takes into account stakeholder views and changes in the way the sector operates. Clearly this detail is needed if the guidance is to reflect the huge changes the sector has been through in the past 12 years.
The guidance is non statutory (unlike the Standards pub- lished in July last year) but aims to assist local authorities that have responsibility for the regulation of this sector with their policy and standard setting, by setting out what the DfT considers to be best practice.
As such, it is imperative that the trade contribute to the development of the guidance as this will form the basis of licensing authority practice.
INTRODUCTION
The guidance is now split into chapters, with the first being the introduction section, which is almost entirely new. This sets out that the guidance doesn’t seek to cover the whole range of possible licensing requirements but concentrates on issues which have caused difficulty in the past or remain of significance.
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The first question which arises is why the guidance does- n’t cover every issue. By providing comprehensive guidance on every issue, as is done in other areas of licensing, this would reduce local interpretation and dif- ferentiation of standards, which is very much a source of concern for the trade and for some authorities. However, this point does not detract from other areas of the guid- ance which is good.
CHAPTER 2 - ROLE OF TAXIS / PHVs
Chapter 2 sets out the role of taxis and PHVs and finally properly recognises the importance of the sector by emphasising that they are part of the wider transport net- work and relied upon by many.
CHAPTER 3 - ROLE OF LICENSING AUTHORITY
The next Chapter (3) discusses the role of the Licensing Authority and as is perhaps expected following the pub- lication of the Statutory Standards last year, emphasises the important role of licensing to protect safety, whereas the previous version sought a more balanced approach. There is an also added emphasis on accessibility and affordability.
The reiteration in Chapter 3 of the role of licensing authorities – to protect the public – is important to remember when considering the disadvantage which some local authorities are placed under due to ‘out of area working’, very much an issue of concern for both authorities and the trade which should be addressed by the guidance.
Out of area working
Out of area working takes place in one of two ways. Either a local authority licenses large numbers of drivers/vehicles which then go on to work outside of that are, or an area is inundated with large numbers of licence holders from elsewhere.
If a local authority, such as mine, has large numbers of vehicles / drivers from elsewhere this reduces our ability to protect our residents as our standards are not upheld and our efforts are undermined by the lack of powers and resources we have to deal with the issue.
JUNE 2022
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