Report by Public Protection Manager (attached).

The Committee considered a report on Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy Amendments (circulated previously), by the Public Protection manager.

Lee Staples, Environmental Health and Licensing Practitioner gave the following update to the Committee:

·         The purpose of this report was to seek possible amendments to the Driver Qualification Standards found in the North Devon Council Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy.

·         Concerns had been received via email over the length of time it took for Drivers to be licensed. 

·         Research was carried out comparing the Driver Licensing process here at North Devon with other Local Authorities across the South West.

·         North Devon Council did stand out in that it required the driver qualification to be completed prior to a licence being issued.  The BTEC course was of a very high standard but there was frustration over the availability of courses being run.

·         Other Local Authorities were happy to issue a Driver licence as long as the Driver undertook a qualification during the first 12 months from the date of issue.

·         A local reduction in the numbers of Drivers currently working in the trade showed no real difference to the national average of loss of Drivers.

·         To address these growing concerns a consideration of amendments to the Council’s policy in order to ensure the process was as streamlined as possible was made.

·         Five options were being proposed these were:

Ø  Option 1: To retain the requirement for a vocationally recognised taxi qualification, but to amend the policy to allow applicants to obtain this qualification within the first 12 months of holding a licence.

Ø  Option 2: To remove the requirement for a vocationally recognised taxi qualification and replace this with a new Taxi Driver Training Course to include modules on taxi legislation and customer care, disability awareness, and Safeguarding (CSE).

Ø  Option 3: To remove the requirement for a vocationally recognised taxi qualification, and replace this with a requirement to undertake mandatory safeguarding (CSE), and disability awareness training.  Furthermore, this could be either prior to obtaining a licence, or within the first 12 months of the licence.

Ø  Option 4: To retain the requirement for a vocationally recognised taxi qualification, but give an alternative training option of a new driver training course (either the vocationally recognised taxi qualification, or the New Taxi Driver Training Course).  Again, this could be either prior to obtaining a licence in the case of the new driver course, or within the first 12 months of the licence for the vocationally recognised taxi qualification.

Ø  Option 5: To maintain the current Driver Qualification Standards without amendment.

In response to questions, the Environmental Health and Licensing Practitioner and the Public Protection manager gave the following responses:

·         No other changes to the policy were being made.  It was still a requirement to undertake a medical examination and to submit an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and in a more recent amendment Drivers must subscribe to the DBS update service, which facilitated periodic checks on convictions.

·         New Drivers could be given a list of contacts in case of concerns over safeguarding issues.

RESOLVED that:

(a)  The new driver process benchmarking found at Appendix A is noted;

RECOMMENDED that:

(b)  That the following amendments to the Driver Qualification Standards be approved at a future Strategy and Resources committee:

(I)           To retain the requirement for a vocationally recognised taxi qualification, but give an alternative training option of a new driver training course (either the vocationally recognised taxi qualification, or the New Taxi Driver Training Course).  Again prior to obtaining a licence in the case of the new driver course.