Enhanced criminal record checks proposed for taxi and private hire drivers

Taxi and private hire drivers could be subjected to strict new licensing guidelines planned by the Department for Transport to ensure the safety and protection of more vulnerable passengers.

The Government has today (12 February 2019) launched a consultation on robust new rules for licensing authorities, outlining how they should use their powers to protect vulnerable passengers from harm.

The guidelines aim to protect passengers with the introduction of new safety standards, which would be effective throughout England and Wales.

The new proposals include local councils ensuring every driver undergoes an enhanced criminal record and background check before they are provided with a private hire driver’s licence.

Taxis Minister, Nusrat Ghani, said: “While the vast majority of drivers are safe and act responsibly, we have seen too many cases where taxi and minicab drivers have used their job to prey on vulnerable people, women and children.

“These rules would make sure that drivers are fit to carry passengers, keeping people safe while stopping those with bad intentions from getting behind the wheel of a taxi or minicab.”

At the moment, Rochdale Council’s licencing officers decide whether to grant someone with a taxi or private hire licence depending on whether they are a ‘fit and proper person to hold such a licence’.

Nicola Rogers, head of public protection at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “We welcome any changes to licensing guidelines nationally that strengthen the measures we have been taking locally to improve safety and protect the public.

“In 2014 we became the first council in England to carry out mandatory safeguarding training for all existing drivers.

"We continue to train all new drivers in safeguarding and have provided safeguarding training packages to other local authorities. This has been a key piece of work in our robust approach to tackling CSE and we remain alert to licensing issues regionally and nationally.”

When submitting an application for a licence to drive a taxi (hackney carriage) or private hire vehicle, or for an operators licence, applicants are required to declare all previous convictions they may have. Applicants are also required to declare all formal cautions and all endorsable fixed penalties they have received and to provide details of all criminal matters of which they are currently the subject of criminal investigation or prosecution.

Currently, there is guidance on when a council should refuse a taxi or private hire licence, but there are no legally enforceable rules.

The Government has also pledged to legislate on national minimum standards for drivers, establish a national licencing database and look at restricting drivers from operating hundreds of miles away from where they are licenced.

As part of these minimum standards, the department will consider whether vehicles should be fitted with CCTV, but the encrypted systems mean footage can only be accessed if there is a crime reported.

The consultation will run up until 22 April 2019.

• www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/taxis-licence