ALL THINGS LICENSING
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 that this article represents my own views which are not presented as the views of the Institute of Licensing or Guildford Borough Council.
May certainly was a busy month and I have barely had time to stop following the local elections at the beginning of the month. This has included delivering a number of councillor training sessions for members at my authority and on behalf of the Institute of Licensing to ensure that members have the required understanding and knowledge to make decisions affecting the licensed trade; as well as of course attending the PHTM EXPO for a couple of days.
PHTM EXPO
I have just returned from the PHTM EXPO where I was pleased to talk about all manner of licensing matters with delegates on the Institute of Licensing stand and as a panellists on the Q&A seminar on the Wednesday.
What clearly emerged from the event is that there is a much needed for national consistency in the approach to licensing. National standards and enforcement powers are something which the DfT has been promising for some time although details and timescales are yet to emerge. The benefits and pitfalls of this approach are probably worthy of a standalone article however both the trade and regulators are left waiting, with a continuation of an inconsistent picture and evident frustrations.
Welsh White Paper
However, for Wales where transportation regulation is a devolved matter, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel with the recent publication of the White Paper on the Taxi and PHV (Wales) Bill.
The White Paper seeks to deliver a taxi and PHV licensing system that is fit for a modern Wales, promotes safety for passengers and drivers, contributes to a cleaner environment, improves the customer experience and is accessible by all. The core proposals for reforming the legislative framework are:
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• The introduction of mandatory national minimum standards for drivers, vehicles and operators applied across Wales;
• Improved enforcement powers for local authorities. This will include provision for local authorities to take enforcement action against any driver or vehicle wherever they are licensed; and,
• Better information sharing between local authorities and better information for passengers.
The consultation also looks at the introduction of a national penalty point scheme, fixed penalty notices for offences and cross-border safeguards between England and Wales, whereby any journey starting or finishing in Wales takes place in a vehicle licensed by a Welsh Authority.
Whilst this is only a draft proposal at this stage, those of us in England will be hopeful that some of the principles flow through in order to try and create a more consistent system than we have currently. The IoL has made a response to the consultation which factors in views from members across local authorities, industry and the legal profession.
The Welsh consultation closes in June and details are available at:
https://www.gov.wales/taxi-and-private-hire-vehicle- wales-bill-white-paper
Seatbelts
Moving on from Welsh reform, earlier this year Rishi Sunak became only the second sitting Prime Minister to be fined by the police after Lancashire Constabulary handed him a fixed penalty notice for not wearing a seatbelt. The police force released a statement at the time saying they were fining the Prime Minister after earlier posting a film of himself on Instagram, travelling in the rear seats of a car without his seatbelt on.
This leads to the inevitable question about what the rules are around wearing a seatbelt in taxis and PHVs, as these can be confusing. Regulation 6 of The Motor Vehicles (Wearing of Seat Belts) Regulations 1993 for a taxi or PHV driver means they are exempt from wearing seatbelts under the following circumstances:
• a licensed taxi while it is being used for seeking hire, or answering a call for hire, or carrying a passenger for hire, or
JUNE 2023 PHTM
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