Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether taxi and private hire vehicles require additional licences while working outside their primary licensing authority area.

Licenced taxi drivers can only work as a taxi (e.g. ply for hire) in the area they are licenced in. They can work as a private hire vehicle (PHV) outside their primary licencing authority. As a PHV though, they can only accept journeys that have been pre-booked.

Licenced PHV drivers do not need additional licences to pick up a booking elsewhere in the UK, however a PHV operator can only invite and accept bookings within the area the operator is licenced.