Agenda item

To consider a report by the Head of Elections, Licensing and Registration which aims to explain the background to the changes being enacted and how they will affect this Authority, particularly issues of general public safety, safeguarding threats and enforcement capability.

(Report attached

The Head of Elections, Licensing and Registration submitted a report which set out proposals which are to be included into the De-Regulation Act 2015 which come into force in October 2015.

Appended to the report were a series of articles from organisations who had expressed concern about de-regulation measures relating to taxi and private hire vehicles. (Appendix 1 refers)

The Section Head, Taxi and Private Hire Licensing presented the report and responded to Members questions and queries.

Detailed discussion ensued on the contents of the report which included:

·  Removing the discretion of a local Authority not to issue a driver licence for a period of more than one year.

·  Allowing for Private Hire Operator licences to be granted for a period of 5 years only without discretion for the Council to grant for a lower period.

·  Removal of the strict control of sub-contracting a Private Hire journey from within a licensing district only to enable sub-contracting to take place on a national basis

A number of Members expressed concern about the removal of controls around sub-contracting; querying how a vehicle/ driver could be traced if it had been sub contracted to an operator in another district and was involved in an incident.

In responding the Section Head, Taxi and Private Hire Licensing said in such circumstances the responsibility rested with the lead operator, but accepted if the booking had been sub contracted to several operators, tracing the vehicle/ operator could be difficult.

Commenting on Section 3.4 of the submitted report and the reference that the City Council had no powers to conduct any enforcement activity on Private Hire Vehicles not licenced by this authority, Members questioned who would carry out enforcement proceedings on out of town vehicles.

The Section Head, Taxi and Private Hire Licensing said the City Council were reliant on the local authority that licenced the vehicle to take the necessary action. Work was currently ongoing with the licensing sections from the West Yorkshire Combined Authorities to share enforcement powers across all authorities, so enforcement officers would be able to inspect vehicles that had been licensed by another authority.

Members referred to paragraph 2.9 of the report and the reference that “There currently was no detailed information or operational guidance on the

de-regulation measures available from the Government, Department of Transport (Dft) or other organisations. Members expressed concern at the lack of guidance and the possible implications if something was to go wrong. It was suggested that issues be raised with Members of Parliament with a view to establishing what actions the Government were going to take.

In responding, the Head of Elections, Licensing and Registration said that the issues had been raised at great length by the Local Government Association during the public consultation stage. Following previous discussions with Members on the issues, a proposal had been made to put out a press release highlighting the council’s concerns for public safety as a consequence of the new legislation. Currently there were ongoing discussions to determine the appropriate Member in whose name the press release should go out.

A number of Members expressed the view that this issue had cross party support and the press release should be from the Chair of the Licensing Committee.

RESOLVED –

(i)  That the contents of the report by noted

(ii)  To support the issuing of a Press Release highlighting concerns about the introduction of de-regulation measures relating to taxi and private hire vehicles.