Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many staff in her Department have permission to work remotely outside the UK; and in which countries those staff are based.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We have provided a response based on the number of accepted requests via the Departments Working Remotely Overseas policy. This does not include staff working overseas on official business postings, with the Departments Working Remotely Overseas policy focusing on staff who are assigned to offices within the UK but have sought permission to temporarily work remotely overseas for exceptional reasons. The response to this question also only refers to DfT core, rather than wider group DfT.
On 3rd July 2025, DfTc had 4 members of staff with permission through our Working Remotely Overseas Policy to temporarily work outside of the UK. These members of staff are working from the Netherlands, India, Malawi and the United States of America.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the number of councils that do not require enhanced DBS checks for (a) taxi and (b) private hire vehicle drivers.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
As at 1 April 2024, all authorities in England reported that they required an enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) security check for taxi and private hire vehicle drivers.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the number of licensed (a) taxi and (b) private hire drivers who are foreign nationals, broken down by their country of origin.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport does not collect that data. Licensing authorities may hold this information as part of the application processes to prevent illegal working as taxi or private hire vehicle drivers.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what guidance her Department has issued to local authorities on checking for overseas criminal records for prospective (a) taxi and (b) private hire vehicle licence holders who were born overseas.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Policing and Crime Act 2017 enables the Secretary of State for Transport to issue statutory guidance to licensing authorities on exercising their taxi and private hire vehicle licensing functions to protect children and vulnerable adults. Statutory guidance was published in 2020 under these powers. This statutory guidance includes a recommendation that when an applicant has previously spent an extended period living or working overseas (3 or more continuous months), licensing authorities should seek or require applicants to provide where possible criminal records information or a certificate of good character from overseas.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing legislation to ensure all (a) taxis and (c) private hire vehicles are fitted with CCTV.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In response to Baroness Casey’s report on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, the Government committed to legislate to address the important issues raised, tackling the inconsistent standards of taxi and private hire vehicle driver licensing. We will work as quickly as possible and consider all options – including national standards – seeking the best overall outcomes for passenger safety. CCTV in vehicles will naturally be explored as part of these considerations.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the number of foreign nationals who hold (a) taxi and (b) private hire vehicle licences who have been deported due to criminal convictions in the last decade.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport does not hold information on the number of deportations due to criminal convictions.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the number of (a) unlicensed and (b) illegal taxi drivers operating in major cities.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport does not hold this data, as such vehicles are not operating within a legal framework.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the number of (a) taxi and (b) private hire vehicle drivers that have (i) an overseas criminal conviction and (ii) been granted a licence in each of the last five years.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Licensing authorities may hold this information. As at 1 April 2024, all authorities in England reported that they required an enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) security check for all drivers. The statutory guidance issued by the Department for Transport in 2020 to taxi and private hire vehicle licensing authorities recommends that when an individual has spent an extended period (3 or more continuous months) outside the UK, licensing authorities should seek or require applicants to provide where possible criminal records information or a certificate of good character from overseas to properly assess risk and support its decision-making process. This enables licensing authorities to make an informed decision when considering if a person is ‘fit and proper’ to hold a taxi or private hire vehicle driver licence.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the number of (a) taxi and (b) private hire drivers who have had their licences revoked due to a criminal conviction in the last 10 years.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
All licensing authorities in England have a duty to ensure that any person to whom they grant a taxi or private hire vehicle driver’s licence is a fit and proper person to be a licensee and that they remain so throughout the duration of the licence. Licensing authorities make decisions based on “the balance of probability”, so when determining whether a driver remains fit and proper to hold a licence, a driver should not be given the benefit of doubt. If a licensing authority is only fifty percent certain as to whether a licensee is fit and proper, they should not hold a licence. The threshold used here is lower than for a criminal conviction (that being beyond reasonable doubt). This means that driver licences may be revoked even if any safety concerns do not result in a criminal conviction.
Since 27 April 2023, all licensing authorities in England have been required to use a national database to record instances where a taxi or private hire vehicle driver’s licence is refused, revoked or suspended because of safeguarding, road safety or equality concerns. The Department has published data about licensing authorities’ use of the database. Between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, 3117 revocations were recorded on the database.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much her Department has spent on (a) social media promotions, (b) influencer marketing and (c) online advertising in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Over the last 12 months, the Department for Transport has spent £830,731.27 on social media advertising and £1,488,420.01 on online advertising through the THINK! Road safety campaign.
This has been done to reach and influence the behaviours of our target audience of 17-24 males, who are four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured on the road than drivers aged 25 and over. Campaigns have tackled priority issues such as drink driving and speeding to reduce casualties and fatalities. All budgets have been scrutinised to ensure value for money, with behaviour change communications often a cost-effective way to support policy interventions, as well as being a core part of the safe-systems approach to road safety.
As part of the THINK! campaign to reduce speeding among young men, the department ran a media partnership with youth platform LadBible which involved working with two content creators as part of a wider partnership. However, we are unable to provide a cost breakdown on influencers specifically due to commercial sensitivities which could prejudice commercial interests. All spend in these areas are subject to the standard value for money assessments.