Issue - meetings

The Committee received a report from Mike Smith, Senior Specialist for Licensing and Community Safety.  The Committee noted that the purpose of the report was to brief the Committee on two important legislative changes in terms of taxi and private hire licensing.  The first was Safeguarding and the Road and Safety Act.  This imposed some duties upon local authorities whereby if there was a concern with a driver who was licenced elsewhere, that local authority would have a duty to report it to the issuing authority.  The issuing authority then had a duty to tell the reporting authority what they were going to do about it, such as either suspending or revoking a driver’s licence.  Those decisions had to be uploaded to a central register which had been available since 2018.  Whilst it was previously good practice to notify neighbouring authorities of issues with drivers, it was now a legal requirement to do so which encouraged more co-working between authorities.

The second piece of legislation provided additional protection for disabled persons under the Equalities Act.  It was against the law to discriminate on the grounds of protected characteristics.  The previous legislation required drivers of designated wheelchair accessible vehicles to accept the carriage of wheelchair users, provide them with reasonable mobility assistance, and refrain from charging them more than other passengers.  However, from 28 June, all taxi and PHV drivers and operators – regardless of whether the vehicle is wheelchair accessible - will be subject to duties under the Equality Act.

The main changes were:

·         Taxi and PHV drivers would be required to:

·         Accept the carriage of any disabled person, provide them with reasonable mobility assistance, and carry their mobility aids, all without charging any more than they would for a non-disabled passenger.

·         Provide any disabled passenger who requests it with assistance to identify the vehicle, at no extra charge.

·         PHV operators will be required to:

·         Accept bookings for or on behalf of any disabled person if they have a suitable vehicle available.

The Committee having discussed the report;

RESOLVED to note the updates to legislation and actions taken to communicate changes to the Licensed Trade. 

That the Licensing Committee consider the proposals in the report and recommends the following areas of Policy are incorporated within the Council’s Taxi and Private Hire Policy to be consulted upon:

Measures to improve driver standards through:

·         requiring drivers to sign up to the Disclosure and Barring Service update service and a check every 6 months

·         adopting a robust previous convictions policy

·         a code of conduct for drivers

Measures to improve vehicle standards through:

·         requiring CCTV in licensed vehicles

·         emissions standards for licensed vehicles

·         a suitability test for vehicle proprietors

Measures to improve private hire operator standards through:

·         Improved staff training and vetting

·         Improved procedures for

o   vetting drivers/vehicles allocated bookings

o   advertising

o   sub-contracting

o   tariff display

o   pickup/drop off procedures

o   executive hires

The purpose of this report was to seek the views of the Committee in respect of the strategic direction for the proposed review of the Taxi and Private Hire Licensing Policy 2015-20.

The proposed changes to the Policy related to Hackney Carriage and Private Hire drivers, CCTV in licensed vehicles, licenced vehicle age/emissions, ‘fit and proper’ test for vehicle proprietors, Private Hire operators, trading names, sub-contracting, operator staff, operator procedures, pick up and drop off locations, operator tariff and executive hires.

Councillors suggested that the Policy should focus on set vehicle emission standards and not vehicle age in the interests of air quality.  CCTV in vehicles was not mandatory and where it was present the Council was the data controller and could access the data together with the police whilst drivers were unable to do so.  CCTV protected drivers in addition to passengers and the cost of installing it could be recovered over the life of the vehicle.

Having considered the proposals in the report, the Committee

RESOLVED

That the following areas of Policy be incorporated within the Council’s Taxi and Private Hire Policy to be consulted upon:

Measures to improve driver standards through:

·                 requiring drivers to sign up to the Disclosure and Barring Service update service and a check every 6 months

·                 adopting a robust previous convictions policy

·                 a code of conduct for drivers

Measures to improve vehicle standards through:

·                 requiring CCTV in licensed vehicles

·                 emissions standards for licensed vehicles

·                 a suitability test for vehicle proprietors

Measures to improve private hire operator standards through:

·                     Improved staff training and vetting

·                     Improved procedures for

o      vetting drivers/vehicles who would be allocated bookings

o      advertising

o      sub-contracting

o      tariff display

o      pick up/drop off procedures

o      executive hires

The reason for the recommendation was to improve safety within the licensed Hackney Carriage and Private Hire vehicle service operating in Surrey.