Decision details

Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Policy - The Institute of Licensing 'Guidance on Determining the Suitability of Applicants and Licensees in the Hackney and Private Hire Trade'

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Decision Maker: Licensing and Community Safety Committee, Strategy and Resources Committee, Council

Decision status: For consultation

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Decisions:

The Committee considered a report by the Licensing Service Lead, the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Policy – The Institute of Licensing ‘Guidance on Determining the Suitability of Applicants and Licensees in the Hackney and Private Hire Trade’, (circulated previously). The Licensing Service Lead gave the following summary information:

· This review had been presented to Committee two years ago but due to unavoidable circumstances had not been implemented

· There was not a legal obligation to have such a policy but was best practice to have one in place

· The Institute of Licensing Document would be the basis for the consultation that it was hoped would be carried out and from the results a clear picture of which parts of the guidance to adopt would be gained

· New requirements for drivers to maintain their certificates through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) would mean electronic checks for any disclosures would be possible at any point during the term of a driver’s licence

· A caution would be regarded in the same way as a conviction

· Previous conviction for exploitation or abuse (either physically, emotionally, or financially) would mean an applicant is not licensed

· Where an applicant had been convicted of sex and indecency offences, regardless of how long ago, a licence would not be granted

· Approval was being sought to hold a consultation for a period of six weeks with the hope to bring back to Committee in the early new year, 2020

In response to a question about using the Council’s social media to highlight the safety of using the taxi service that the Council licensed the Licensing Service Lead Officer advised this could be done as part of a Christmas Safety campaign.

In response to a question on how the Council were notified of offences committed, the Senior Solicitor advised the Committee that the courts did not have the resources to notify Local Authorities on the outcome of individual cases. Councillor Henderson advised Committee that for a fee there was a service that could be subscribed to whereby on entering a postcode you would find a list of all convictions made in that area, providing an occupation was declared this could be used to find convictions for taxi drivers. The Service Lead Licensing Officer advised the Committee that serious offences were notified to the Authority by the Police but for minor misdemeanours the Council were reliant on the Applicant notifying the Authority.

In response to a question about the adoption of a new policy and whether this would affect existing licences, the Senior Solicitor confirmed that the policy would not have any retrospective effect.

RESOLVED that:

(a) the report be noted;

(b) a six week consultation exercise be undertaken with the taxi trades, general public and anybody with an interest in taxis; and

Report author: Howard Bee

Publication date: 10/10/2019

Date of decision: 08/10/2019

Decided at meeting: 08/10/2019 - Licensing and Community Safety Committee

Accompanying Documents: