Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the Government's policy is on whether licensed private hire vehicle drivers are required to pass a test in English as a condition of holding a licence.

The legislation that provides for licensing of taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) services is enabling in its nature, giving licensing authorities the discretion to set standards that they deem to be appropriate including language skills. To which end the Department’s current best practice guidance to licensing authorities states that they “may also wish to consider whether an applicant for a taxi or PHV driver licence would have any problems in communicating with customers because of language difficulties.”