IoL - ALL THINGS LICENSING LICENSING IN A POST COVID WORLD
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.
Following my article about the role of the Institute of Licensing in October’s edition, I was keen to follow up with another article from a licensing perspective in order to promote the work of the Institute of Licensing (IoL) to raise standards in licensing and encourage membership amongst the trade. As I explained in my last article, the PHTM EXPO was my first event ‘post covid’ and how licensing may look ‘post covid’ is the focus of this month’s article.
Please note that this article represents my own views and are not presented as the views of the Institute of Licensing.
ARE WE IN A ‘POST COVID’ WORLD?
Whilst everyone talks about a ‘post covid’ world, in the seven days up to the date this article was written there were nearly 300,000 reported covid cases indicating that covid, and the risks and apprehension that this brings, are still very much with us. Certainly, for local authorities, and licensing in particular, we are still dealing with a backlog of work caused by covid, such as noise complaints about licensed premises, and the more ‘proactive’ inspection work which has been on the back burner; while still dealing with the potential risks of covid under Health and Safety Legislation at licensed premises and events. Equally members of the licensed trade will still be considering precautions such as wearing face coverings and increased cleaning in order to reduce the risk of covid.
Covid continues to impact on everyone. We may be mostly free of restrictions at present, but the impact of the pandemic is still being felt in all sectors. Other recent challenges have included the ‘fuel crisis’ and stark warnings about availability of goods for the festive period due to a shortage of HGV drivers, with covid a contributing factor. The fuel crisis in particular, was a real concern for everyone, but would have been so much worse for members of the trade who absolutely rely on fuel to work. An empty tank is pretty finite and an unwelcome complication for members of the trade working hard to recover from the covid restrictions.
As the trade and local authorities emerge from what will hopefully be the end of restrictions, we can start to take stock of where we are and consider what the next few months will bring.
64 DRIVER NUMBERS
The loss of drivers in the trade has been well documented recently. Drivers have left for a combination of reasons, and this reduction in licence holders is being experienced across many industries including taxis and private hire, other transport industries (notably HGV transport), hospitality, and security services.
Local Authorities would normally expect a level of ‘churn’ in licensed drivers, but there is currently a notable lack of new driver applications. There could be a number of reasons for this.
There have been cases, particularly in the early days of the pandemic, where some local authorities effectively closed their licensing services and ceased to accept new applications. It is certainly the case that in the initial stages of the pandemic, processes required rapid review and local authorities had to find new ways to undertake the statutory licensing function while contending with office closures and working from home. I would hope that by now, most local authorities have adapted, and most have done a fantastic job at a very difficult time. The IoL has proactively promoted the need (and statutory requirement) to continue to undertake the licensing function, and ‘post covid’ most organisations should have contingency plans now in place to be able to operate even during times of government restriction.
In the case of my own local authority, Guildford has admin- istered an ‘online’ knowledge test which is proving popular, but the numbers are still down compared to a few years ago. We are also finding that some potential drivers opt for licensing with TfL to enable them to work with app-based companies licensed with TfL and operating in Guildford.
There have been some calls for councils to lower standards in order to ‘encourage’ drivers into the trade. Reduction in standards is likely to impact adversely on public safety and undermine the licensing regime which is ultimately there to protect customers, and local authorities should resist such calls. Local authorities have a legal duty to ensure that the people being granted driver licences are fit and proper for the role, not to make life easier for firms competing with other operators. Undermining standards will also do a disservice to those members of the trade who operate to a high standard and result in a worse service to customers. Furthermore, any easing of criteria would likely go against the DfT’s Statutory Taxi & Private Hire Vehicle Standards (published in July 2020), which seek to address some areas of inconsistency between authorities with a view to increasing protection of passengers.
NOVEMBER 2021
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