SPOKESPERSON DISPELS MISCONCEPTIONS WOLVERHAMPTON COUNCIL
CITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON COUNCIL
The Deregulation Act 2015 was discussed in Parliament recently. This is a commonly misunderstood topic and City of Wolverhampton
Council is working to publicise information on the matter, including problems with the wider regime. The council wants to work with the trade and fellow regulators to improve public safety.
Licence applications
Licensing authorities may not refuse an application from an individual simply because they live outside the area. Applicants have always been allowed to apply for a licence with any licensing authority.
Section 48 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 states that licensing authorities:
“shall not refuse such a licence for the purpose of limiting the number of vehicles in respect of which such licences are granted by the council”.
Therefore, it is illegal for licensing authorities to refuse applications for private hire vehicles to limit their numbers.
Section 52 and 55 of the Act also require licensing authorities to grant licences to suitable applicants for private hire driver and private hire vehicle operator licences, respectively. This is similar to the DVLA, which may not refuse to grant a provisional driver a full driving licence because there are too many drivers on the road. Every application for a licence must be determined and if the applicant meets the criteria, the licence must be granted.
Cross-bordering
Prior to the Deregulation Act, private hire vehicle operators were unique in being unable to sub- contract their work to businesses licensed elsewhere in the country. This was causing significant problems
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if an operator didn’t have sufficient resources to accept a booking and couldn’t subcontract the booking to another operator licensed by the same authority.
The passenger would either have to wait, look elsewhere or simply find an alternative means of transport. This had a significant impact on public safety, particularly for those with assistance dogs and wheelchairs.
The Deregulation Act enables the sub-contracting of bookings between operators, even if the operator is licensed by another authority. Where the journey is sub-contracted to an operator licensed by another authority (i.e. across the borders of the licensing authority), this is known as cross-bordering.
This is not a loophole in the legislation, as is often stated. A loophole is where an activity is permitted because it has not been considered when legislation was enacted. This is a feature of the legislation – the Government intended for cross-bordering to be permitted.
Cross-bordering is not simply a driver undertaking a journey across the borders of licensing authorities. Section 75 of the Act makes provisions to permit private hire vehicles’ journeys to start, drive through and end in any area of the country, regardless of which licensing authority issued their licences. This is known as the ‘right to roam’. This has always been allowed, which anyone who has booked a private hire vehicle to and from an airport outside of their council district will know.
Minimum Standards
There is much talk of implementing ‘minimum standards’, implying that Wolverhampton council does not meet the standard of other authorities. The reality is that there are already minimum standards in taxi licensing, in the form of the legislation to which all licensing authorities must adhere. In
NOVEMBER 2024 PHTM
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