KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
In this month’s edition Patterson Law will examine the options of appeal available where an application for a private hire or hackney carriage licence is refused, or where a licence is revoked by the licensing authority.
APPLICATIONS
In order to work as a private hire or hackney carriage driver a per- son must first apply to the local authority for a licence. When making a decision to grant a licence, the licensing authority will have to apply a test prior to granting. Equally, if a person has al- ready been granted a licence the local authority may review this and consider suspending or revoking it at any point.
The test that the local authority would apply is whether or not a person is “fit and proper” to hold such a licence. We can examine what the authority will consider when applying this test below.
FIT AND PROPER PERSON TEST
The licensing authority will rely on Section 51(1) of the Local Gov- ernment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 which sets out that a licence to drive a hackney carriage or a private hire vehicle shall not be granted “unless they are satisfied that the applicant is a fit and proper person to hold a driver’s licence”.
Whilst this sounds fairly straightforward there are a number of is- sues that the council can raise to determine whether a person is not fit and proper, which can include, but is certainly not limited to, some of the following examples:
• Accumulation of penalty points • Failure to notify the licensing authority of convictions (includ- ing speeding offences) • A delay in notifying the licensing authority of convictions • Receiving a caution for a criminal offence • Receiving complaints from members of the public • Committing a serious road traffic offence e.g. driving without due care and attention, dangerous driving or causing death or serious injury by dangerous or careless driving • Driving your private hire vehicle without insurance
Something that licensing authorities will also often consider is whether or not they would feel comfortable allowing a vulnerable friend or family member in a taxi with the applicant.
GUIDANCE AND GUIDELINES
Every local council will have different guidelines that they will set out when considering these applications, and so it is important that an applicant or licence holder does familiarise themselves with the guidelines for their local authority.
However, more recently several licensing authorities are adopting guidelines released in April 2018 by The Institute of Licensing which involved a widespread consultation including the Local Government Association, Lawyers in Local Government and the National Association of Licensing and Enforcement Officers.
The guidance issued made clear that public safety is at the heart of local authorities’ discretion in granting a licence.
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Whilst a lot of the information included in the guidance may ap- pear obvious and will already be common practice for a number of drivers, it is unknown to many that these guidelines have also set out that if an applicant holds seven or more penalty points on their driving licence, even for minor speeding allegations or driv- ing whilst using a mobile phone, the authority should not grant a licence until a period of five years has elapsed since the comple- tion of the sentence imposed. This means that for example, if an applicant was caught speeding at 39mph in a 30mph limit (three points) and then 41mph in a 30mph limit (four-six points at court), the application for a private hire licence is likely to be refused (if the local authority is adopting these guidelines).
The guidelines also state that if any offence relating to drink/drug driving or insurance is to be treated as a “major” traffic offence and where an applicant has a conviction for a major offence a li- cence should not be granted for a period of seven years after the completion of the sentence imposed.
Whilst the guidance is clear on the maximum number of penalty points, it is not clear on the impact of a discretionary disqualifica- tion period imposed under Section 34 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. Under this section, a person may be disqualified instead of having points imposed on their licence for a motoring offence – so it is certainly something to consider if a person is at risk of hav- ing their licence reviewed. It is however likely that the licensing authority will review the nature of the offence and consider whether it is serious enough to warrant the refusal or revocation of a licence.
THE MEETING
If the licensing authority does not consider that an applicant passes the fit and proper test, or that a current licence holder is no longer fit and proper, they could be called to a meeting with the licensing sub-committee to decide whether to grant/renew/remove the licence.
After the meeting the sub-committee can consider whether to allow you to keep your licence, or whether they wish to suspend the licence for a period of time or revoke the licence completely.
An applicant or licence holder can of course attend these meet- ings with representation to assist in mitigating on their behalf in persuading the committee that they are in fact fit and proper. The decision will be provided to them in writing and should also out- line the options to appeal the decision made to the Magistrates’ Court.
APPEAL PROCESS
Should a private hire or hackney carriage licence be refused, sus- pended or revoked there is an automatic right to appeal the de- cision of the local authority to the Magistrates’ Court.
An appeal to the Magistrates’ Court must be made within 21 days of the decision having been made by the licensing authority. The case of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council v Latif [2009] makes it clear that if an appeal is not lodged within the 21 days set out then there are no grounds in which the court may consider leave to appeal outside of time and the applicant or licence holder would lose the opportunity to appeal.
Once an appeal has been lodged it is expected that an applicant JANUARY 2020
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