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 BC.
November is conference season for the Institute of Licensing with the Taxi Conference having just taken place online at the end of October and the signature National Training Event scheduled to take place in November in Stratford upon Avon.
The Taxi Conference, a full day of discussion with some leading voices associated with the licensed trade, took place hot off the first live evidence session of the Taxi and Private Hire Licensing Inquiry on the 15 October.
The theme emanating from the Taxi Conference just passed was very much a need for consistency in the sector by way of national standards, which was almost an echo of many of the live submissions to the Parliamentary Inquiry.
Certainly one of the speakers at the Taxi Conference from the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, a charity cam- paigning for safety,advised that the Government certainly has an interest in ensuring robust safety standards in the sector as part of its commitment to reduce violence against women and girls.
Leading on from that there have also been indications that the Government is looking to limit private hire activity following concerns in some areas around out of area working, including Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham going on record with a proposal to amend the current Local Government Devolution Bill to this effect. Additionally, the Department for Transport has also confirmed that there will be a consultation on moving the taxi and private hire licensing function to strategic authorities ‘shortly’.
66 NOVEMBER 2025 PHTM
Moving on from the Taxi Conference, there are a number of taxi related sessions at the upcoming IoL National Conference, including a session that I am delivering on practical vehicle inspections. At the time of writing there are still some limited placed available, with details available on the IoL website at
www.instituteoflicensing.org.
Otherwise, the Transport Select Committee inquiry into the licensing of taxis and private hire vehicles is continuing to publish the written evidence it has received and having had a brief look through some of the newer submissions, the common theme of the need to have national, common standards very much remains.
The published written submissions are available on the Committee Inquiry pages at:
https://committees.parliament.uk/work/9260/licensing -of-taxis-and-private-hire-vehicles/
I’ve had a few phone calls from Guildford licence holders asking whether the council has made a submission, which it has, and I am looking forward to seeing this and others in the coming weeks.
Finally, although not strictly taxi but licensing related, there is also immense change on the horizon for other areas of local government licensing. Following the Taxi and Private Hire Call for Evidence, October saw not one, but two further Government calls for evidence on licensing matters.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80
