Agenda item

The Chair introduced the item which provided an update on current issues in taxi licensing and the LGA’s work on taxi licensing reform.

            The Chair invited Jade Hall, Policy Adviser, to add any comments. Jade informed the Board that paper set out a number of lobbying asks on taxi/private hire vehicle (PHV) licensing reform and the proposal set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, which sought to transfer control of taxi/PHV licencing to combine upper tier authorities.

            In the discussion, Members made the following comments:

·       Members commented that they were broadly supportive of the LGA’s lobbying asks, which had been discussed extensively at previous Board meetings.

·       Members were concerned about the taxi licensing proposal in the Levelling Up White Paper. They felt taxi/PHV licensing is fundamentally a local issue with important safeguarding implications, and that while more consistency was desirable across authorities, there was a concern that moving licensing to combined authorities might see standards reduce.

·       Members also questioned which councillors would be able to undertake appeals if responsibility sat at combined authority level: local accountability was important.

·       The opportunity for a joint policy to be administered by districts in a county council area was suggested as one way of improving consistency of standards.

·       Members highlighted that the points made in paragraph 17 were important as changes needed to be made as part of a bigger package of taxi/PHV reform, including new legislation. They also highlighted concerns about taking away taxi/PHV licensing from smaller licensing teams as this may impact on other areas of licensing and staffing levels.

·       Members highlighted concerns about limiting out of area working by drivers and questioned the practicalities of introducing measures to address this. However, members highlighted how this is causing firms in some areas to go out of business because they are losing out to out of area workers who are only available during certain periods of the day.

·       Members pointed out that people with criminal backgrounds could move around to neighbouring authorities and be approved. This sparked discussion about modern slavery, safeguarding and sexual exploitation issues.

·       Inconsistency across authorities was concerning, especially around safeguarding. A best practice model was needed, ensuring certain standards were mandatory, and a national database was also long overdue.

·       Members raised that if taxi licensing was moved to a county council level, this could cause challenges in terms of the location of courts.

The Chair concluded that taxi/PHV licensing decisions should be made as locally as possible, elected accountability was an important element, cross border hire raised standardisation issues and any changes needed to be part of a wider package of reform.

Decision:

            That members of the Board noted the item.