Consultation on Changes to Taxi Licensing Conditions, Policy and Guidelines

Overview

The Council has a duty to protect the general public from harm when using Hackney Carriage or Private Hire Vehicles.  In order to do this the Council must satisfy itself that all drivers and operators are 'fit and proper' persons.

The 'Guidelines on Fitness and Propriety' (guidelines) are used to provide the Council with a written framework which allows employees and Councillors to make fair and consistent decisions when assessing the suitability of applicants for hackney carriage or private hire licences.

The guidelines are also applicable for existing drivers, proprietors and operators when they breach conditions, are convicted/cautioned for relevant offences or behave in a manner that is inconsistent with that expected from a licence holder

The guidelines are reviewed on a periodic basis to ensure that they take into account revised and current legislation along with local and national licensing proprietors and technological advancements. The last review of these Guidelines was undertaken in 2023-2024.

The Council has worked with licensing authorities across West Midlands and West Mercia to draft from scratch a set of uniform licence conditions which are to be proposed across the regions, ensuring that licence holders have to follow the same rules.

Ultra-low Emission Vehicles (ULEVs) produce less than 75g CO2/km. Following discussions with neighbouring authorities, it is proposed that 1 January 2030 is the date from which new vehicle licence applications would no longer be accepted for vehicles emitting 75g CO2/km or more.

This lead period gives time for the trade to prepare, whilst allowing other licensing authorities time to consult on and approve this requirement, ensuring a level playing field in the industry. If this is approved, there will be a review of the situation in 2029. If other licensing authorities have failed to implement a restriction on non-ULEVs, then it will be recommended to the committee that the policy should not be implemented. This is because the council’s own policy will simply be circumvented by the trade ‘licence shopping’ and applying elsewhere. Thereby, the council will lose control of those working in the city and emissions would not be reduced.

This consultation will also seek views on whether the council should licence vehicles which only have one passenger door, rather than doors on both sides. Whilst this would increase the range of vehicles available to the trade, particularly wheelchair accessible ones, there are safety concerns.

Why your views matter

The Institute of Licensing published its Suitability Guidance on 13 November 2024 and the Council has reviewed its guidelines as a result.