NPHTA: FIGHTING FOR OUR TRADE DAVID LAWRIE CALLED TO GIVE EVIDENCE
l Mandate enforcement of Section 75(1)(a) LGMPA 1976
Article by Dave Lawrie Director NPHTA
info@nphta.co.uk
I am honoured to be invited, as Director of NPHTA, to attend Parliament on Wednesday 15 October, to give oral evidence as a national representative of our industry, at their first public session of the Licensing of Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles inquiry.
As we all know, the government, prompted by recommendations detailed in the Casey report, launched this inquiry in July 2025, with a submissions deadline of 8 September. The NPHTA promptly set up a working group, made up of our board members and other trade representatives, to discuss and formulate our response and ensure it reflected views from across the country. We also contacted a number of MPs and several licensing authorities for their input, with the intention of creating a combined and informed submission.
There have been numerous responses from various industry stakeholders lodged:
https://shorturl.at/VyZE6
However, as I am one of only four people giving evidence at this first session, this invite can only mean that the committee has read and digested our NPHTA submission and consider it to be worthy of further clarification.
Our main recommendations are summarised below:
l Intended use policies (IUP) work well for hackney carriage vehicles. We believe IUP should now be applied to all licence types: operator, driver, vehicle; and the adoption of this should be a statutory requirement for all councils This does not mean that vehicles and drivers can never provide a service outside of their licensed area, it merely dictates that in order to justify applying for a licence issued by a local authority ‘most’ of the work performed must be fulfilled locally for residents of that region
lWe do not believe the ABBA rule will work - this is where ‘A’ is the licensing district and all journeys must start or end within district A
l Mandate that the triple lock rule must be more actively enforced: this means the driver’s licence, vehicle plate, and operator’s licence must all be issued by the same licensing authority
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l Introduce geofencing as a condition of operator licensing to stop drivers sitting around waiting for jobs where they are not licensed
lCouncils must adopt better and more efficient systems for processing licensing applications quickly to stop drivers needing to ‘licence shop’
l End licensing officers working from home as this is no longer practical or justifiable
l Ensure adequate provision of direct contact details for licensing departments
l Retain existing licensing zones to prevent lack of local provision of service
l National standards: we believe that there has to be some element of variation for more rural areas; for clarity this is because conditions that apply in London or other cities may not be fit for purpose in towns and rural areas
lAutonomous vehicles: may be useful for short trips but do not discount the invaluable service licensed drivers offer their passengers and local communities by helping the old and disabled, carrying of shopping and luggage, transporting children on school runs
l Please note CCTV was not included in our sub- mission as it was not one of the questions; although several other stakeholders submissions did state their support for mandatory CCTV. However to be clear, NPHTA believes CCTV should be voluntary not mandatory. We have developed a national standard that has been adopted by several local authorities throughout the UK, and have liaised at length with the ICO to help it create clear and simple guidance for recording devices in taxis and PHVs, which it published in April 2025.
2026 THE YEAR OF CHANGE!
NPHTA has been fighting for ALL our trade for over 30 years, and promises to continue to fight to ensure our industry gets the recognition and support it deserves as well as the legislative change it so urgently needs.
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www.nphta.co.uk 0161 280 2800
OCTOBER 2025 PHTM
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