Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of defining (a) pre-booked and (b) plying for hire in law in response to recommendation made by the Task and Finish Group on Taxi and Private Hire Licensing.

Providing a statutory definition of plying for pre-booking and plying for hire was considered as part of the Government response to the report by the Chair of the Task and Finish Group. The response issued on 12 February explained that since the Law Commission concluded in 2014 that a statutory definition of plying for hire would not be a practical improvement on the current position and there being no change in the legal situation, the Government would not take forward that recommendation.