Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department plans to make mandatory the sharing of data on the licensing of hackney carriage and private hire drivers and operators between licencing authorities.

Data sharing arrangements between licensing authorities are a matter for each authority to consider.

There have not been any recent meetings between ministers and local authorities or other external stakeholders specifically regarding the development of a data sharing arrangements on the licensing of hackney carriage and private hire vehicle (PHV) drivers, PHV operators between licencing authorities.

The Government supports the ‘Licensing of Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Safeguarding and Road Safety) Bill 2017-19’ Private Members’ Bill which seeks to mandate the sharing of some licensing information between authorities.