TAXI LAW EXPLAINED OFFENCES, CAN I GET A LICENCE?
This article was supplied by: Stephen McCaffrey Head of Taxi Defence Barristers and Taxi Defence Scotland 020 7060 4773
www.taxidefencebarristers.co.uk www.taxidefencescotland.co.uk
sions of the Act of 1847 or of this Part of this Act;
• that he has since the grant of the licence been convicted of an immigra- tion offence or required to pay an immigration penalty; or
• any other reasonable cause.
In London this is covered by various Acts and Orders including the London Cab Order 1934 and the Private Hire (London) Vehicles Act 1998.
INTRODUCTION
It is well established that licensing exists to ensure that only those people deemed to be fit and proper are able to obtain, and retain, a taxi or private hire licence. One aspect of determin- ing a person’s fit and proper state involves scrutiny of a person’s charac- ter. It is, generally speaking, right that a cautious approach should be taken in cases where a person who holds a licence, or applies for a licence, has a criminal history.
However, this also needs to be balanced with the need for a fair hearing and the right to exercise discretion in some cases. In this article I will look at some relevant considerations for taxi and private hire licensing concluding with some practical advice and specific case examples.
THE LAW
Looking at the issue and relevance of offences in terms of taxi and private hire licensing, we need to firstly consider the strictly legal position as this will form the basis for any action of decision made.
Under section 61 of the Local Govern- ment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, licensing authorities have the power to suspend, refuse or revoke a hackney carriage or private hire driver’s licence in cases where an applicant or driver has:
• been convicted of an offence involv- ing dishonesty, indecency or violence; or
• been convicted of an offence under or has failed to comply with the provi-
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Similar provisions also existing in Scot- tish taxi and private hire law under section 4 and schedule 1 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 where the Chief Constable is consulted on applications. Any objection or represen- tation relating to an application for the grant or renewal of a taxi or private hire licence will be refused if the applicant is disqualified or is not a fit and proper person to be a holder of the licence.
It is clear from the above then that as far as the primary legislation is concerned, criminal offences by licence holders or licence applicants should be viewed as particularly serious by licensing authori- ties.
However, whilst this is clearly important and right, it is not the end of the matter. The existence of an offence (or offences) should not automatically trig- ger a severe sanction such as a revocation or refusal. Aside from the primary legislation, there are numerous other factors that must be taken into account before any decision should be taken. The most relevant of these is local and national licensing policy.
LICENSING POLICY
The finer details of how the statutory right to refuse, revoke or suspend is exercised are outlined in local licensing policy. It is rare these days for licensing authorities not to have some form of adopted convictions policy. The DfT taxi and private hire licensing statistics for 2018 suggested that 97 per cent of licensing authorities have some sort of adopted convictions policy.
Most taxi and private hire licence hold- ers will understand this general concept of a convictions policy. However, there are a few very important policy matters relating to convictions that I would like to highlight.
WHAT CONSTITUTES AN “OFFENCE”?
In a normal criminal sense, an offence is doing something that is prohibited in or by law. Whilst this meaning is also rele- vant to taxi and private hire licensing, most local authorities will apply a much broader meaning to the term “offence”.
Convictions policies will often stipulate that taxi and private hire licence holders or applicants must not constrain their disclosure to purely the criminal under- standing of offences. Instead, licensing policies will often require applicants to also disclose to them details relating to cautions, arrests, criminal investigations and fixed penalty notices.
This is because licensing decisions are made based on the civil standard of evi- dence. It is therefore within the remit of licensing authorities to make decisions based on the balance of probabilities (as opposed to ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ as in the case in criminal proceedings).
The balance of probabilities allows licens- ing authorities to make decisions on a licence holder or applicant’s history even where they may have been, for example, acquitted, their cases thrown out or no further action taken by the police.
“CLEAR LINE” POLICIES
Increasingly, convictions policies are tak- ing a “clear line” or “bright line” approach to convictions. Simply put, these types of policies will stipulate instances where a licensing authority will “never” issue a licence.
OCTOBER 2019
Generally speaking, convictions policies will stipulate a time period a licensing authority will expect to have elapsed since a person’s conviction. The more serious the offence, the longer the time period would be.
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