IN THE NEWS
NEW RULES TARGET DODGY TAXI FIRMS IN RENFREWSHIRE
Tough new rules which aim to put the brakes on taxi and pri- vate hire firms that are involved in illegal money laundering and drug offences will be introduced. From November, all taxi and private hire companies in Renfrew- shire will have to register for a licence under the new Scottish government mandato- ry licensing scheme. They will also have to keep records of every
booking they take, the registration number of the vehicle sent to each hire and the name of the driver involved. Police and other authorities have pressed the govern- ment to introduce the new legislation amid concerns over illegal activities such as money laundering and drug-related crimes at some cab companies in Scotland.
The new legislation
has been welcomed by Renfrewshire Cab Company - which is the largest private hire taxi firm in the Paisley area. Spokesman Peter Kelso stressed that only those firms which are operating outside of the law have anything to fear. He told the Paisley Daily Express: “There are some companies out there around the country which aren’t being run properly.
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Anyone who comes to our premises can see how well we are operat- ed. We don’t have anything to worry about. “We have been speaking to the local authority about this and know what we have to do.” Mr Kelso revealed that Ren- frewshire Cab Company already takes comprehensive records of bookings and these were put to good use during the investigation into the terror attack at Glas- gow Airport in June 2007.
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He said: “The police came to us after the airport incident and we were able to show them very quickly that we had been picking up the two doctors they suspected had been involved. “We could show the police where we’d been taking them and picking them up from, the dates and times of hires and their mobile phone numbers. “We’ve got a good system here which works well.”
A report to Renfrew- shire Council’s Regulatory Functions Board told councillors that the Scottish Gov- ernment has recognised concerns over the lack of regula- tion for taxi and private hire booking offices. It added: “There is some evidence which suggests that some booking offices may be using unlicensed drivers and vehicles to fulfil hires and that
other illegal activity may also be taking place.
“The new scheme seeks to address these issues.” From November 16, any taxi or private hire firm which has not applied for the new licence and continues to operate a booking office will be commit- ting an offence. Renfrewshire Council has set the fee for a grant of a licence at £250 and the fee for renewal has been set at £500.
Licences will be issued for one year in the first instance and then two years on renewal.
Mmmm… PHTM read- ers may have already noticed that this edi- tion has somewhat of a Scottish flavour. Our company profile is from Glasgow; our driver profile is from West Lothian; and the legislation featured (and reproduced in full, as always) in Opinion is the Scot- tish Statutory Instrument bringing in operator licences for booking offices. Obviously Opinion will go into all the legal and technical aspects of this legislation, but suffice to say here that it’s pretty momentous.
Of
course England and Wales have had oper- ator licensing since 1976 when private hire vehicles and driv- ers were first licensed. But there are some subtle, and not-so-subtle, differ-
www.burnsidetelecom.com 01 420 520 029
ences with the Scot- tish booking office licensing:
for
instance, the Regula- tion affects all Scottish licensing authorities from 16 November 2009 onwards, whereas the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provi- sions) Act 1976 was adoptive – which meant that English and Welsh authorities took from 1976 to introduce the legisla- tion in their area, until 1993 when Mon- mouthshire was the last local authority in England and Wales to adopt the ’76 Act. The other major differ- ence is that the Scottish booking office licence also must be obtained for hackney carriage firms with more than three vehicles on their circuit. Now that is momentous! We shall bring you any and all news arising from this new Regulation when it happens.
In the meantime, the Regulation requires that Scottish booking offices must have made application for their licence from their local authority before the 16th November.
Apart
from this newspaper article in the local press, has Renfrew- shire Council notified their booking offices about this deadline? We have found evi- dence in other Scottish authorities that this has not hap- pened as yet; what about yours? – Ed.
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