Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of (a) taxi and (b) private hire vehicle drivers obtaining licenses in areas known to have a weaker vetting on risks to passenger safety.

All taxi and private hire vehicle licensing authorities in England have advised the Department that for drivers they require the highest level of vetting available, an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check and a check of both the children’s and adults’ Barred Lists.

The Department for Transport will legislate to tackle inconsistent standards of taxi and private hire vehicle driver licensing more broadly. We are considering all options including out of area working, national standards and enforcement – seeking the best overall outcomes for passenger safety. In the interim the Department is reviewing licensing authorities’ compliance with existing guidance and determining how the statutory guidance on protecting children and vulnerable adults can be strengthened to further protect the public.

Licensing authorities can already jointly authorise officers from other authorities so that compliance and enforcement action can be taken against licensees from outside their area. Such an agreement would set out the range of powers available, but these could include the ability to undertake compliance checks and immediately suspend a driver’s licence in the interests of public safety. This enables the use of the agreed powers regardless of which authority within the agreement the officer is employed by and which issued the licence.

A consultation on making all local transport authorities responsible for taxi and private hire vehicle licensing, which would increase consistency in licensing and make better use of enforcement powers, will be launched shortly.