Issues relating to the licensing of taxis and private hire vehicles

Written evidence from Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (TPH 27)

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council wish to bring the following matters to the attention of the Commons Transport Committee in respect of issues relating to the licensing of taxis and private hire vehicles including "cross-border hire problems":

1. This Council would welcome a complete overhaul of all taxi and private hire legislation which, this Council believes, is no longer fit for purpose and in the case of hackney carriages, was written before the inception of the motor car. The legislation is vague in parts and the current guidance/best practice is considered to be inadequate. This, together with the absence of any national standards has led to local interpretation, the adoption and application of local conditions and policy and as a consequence local challenges through the appeal process in magistrates and the high courts with differing results.

2. This was demonstrated in our recent Court of Appeal judgment in the case Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council v Alan Fidler and others Appeal Court reference No, CO/5268/2010, when the Court found that a hackney carriage licensed anywhere in the country can be used for private hire bookings predominantly or solely in a completely different district, which again can be anywhere in the country, with the exception of London.

3. Each local authority currently has the autonomy to specify local conditions and policies. The effect of vehicles being used from outside of their own districts in such a way currently undermines the entire concept of local policies and conditions to suit local needs.

4. This situation has been created largely through the actions of the former Berwick District Council. This was a Council which had lower standards than many other local authorities. At the time that this situation first arose it did not require a medical for taxi drivers to Group II standards; it did not have any knowledge test covering legislation and topographical knowledge, it did not have adequate policies on criminal record checks for drivers and it did not have proper standards for vehicles. Vehicles and drivers rejected by other local authorities on the ground of public safety or in the case of drivers that they were not fit and proper persons to hold a licence were subsequently granted licences by Berwick Council. Neither driver nor vehicle had to be presented to Berwick Council – applications were dealt with by post. On at least two occasions drivers whose licences were revoked or refused by Stockton Borough Council on the basis that they were not considered not to be fit and proper to hold such a licence were subsequently licensed by Berwick Council and immediately appeared back working in Stockton.

5. The effect of this on the public of Stockton is that they are subject to different standards. They may book a taxi expecting that it will conform to this Council’s stringent standards and then find it is of poorer quality, driven by someone who does not have proper knowledge of the area and has not been subject to the same stringent checks required by this Council (e.g. the requirement to undertake the Driving Standards Agency taxi driver competence driving test and in respect of the relevance given to any convictions). In essence residents and visitors to Stockton may be driven by someone who the Borough deems not be fit and proper because the legislation and case law currently allows this. In our experience unscrupulous drivers and operators are taking advantage of the legal ‘loophole’ to circumvent the ethos of the legislation. It is quite apparent that this situation clearly goes against the rationale of the legislation but case law presently allows this to happen. As Mr Justice Langstaff pointed out at paragraph 78 of the Stockton Council judgement:-

"If it seems that there are nonetheless tensions between any policy of local licensing and regulation on the one hand, and the proper interpretation of the wording of statute as determined in this case, that must be a matter for consideration and review by Parliament rather than the courts".

6. A major problem associated with this arrangement is in relation to enforcement as authorised officers of Stockton Borough Council have no authority to deal with any issues relating to these vehicles and their drivers and the authority that licensed them does not carry out any enforcement in our area. A recent example of this relates to a customer complaint about a driver allegedly using drugs. This complaint was received in August this year and was referred to the newly formed Northumberland Council for their attention. (Note: Stockton has introduced and carries out random drug screening of our licensed drivers). It has now only recently been brought to our attention that this driver had his licence revoked in June following a caution for a drug related offence and the lack of any enforcement has allowed him to continue to drive putting the residents of Stockton at risk.

This situation is not limited to Berwick and our experience is that some neighbouring, small local authorities which did not have sufficiently stringent standards, policies or enforcement procedures were also licensing vehicles and drivers in this way which were then working in our district. However we have been able to persuade them to adopt policies similar to our own and the other local authorities in the Tees Valley area so that it is no longer advantageous to go to these councils for licences.

7. Ultimately, as demonstrated by Berwick one small authority could actually licence every hackney carriage vehicle in the country, gathering in all of the fees in respect of such licences and then these vehicles could work in every district of the country as private hire vehicles without each district’s local authority having any control over them.

8. We currently have two further appeals pending, one relating to our policy and conditions relating to private hire operator licences and one in relation to our vehicle policy when we have determined that we will not licence insurance ‘write-offs’.

9. Cross-border hiring is also a problem is this councils area as we have several large private hire operators who hold multiple operator licences with ourselves and neighbouring authorities and we receive frequent complaints from other members of the trade when they see other authorities licensed private hire vehicles working in our area. The fact that they tend to operate from a central base, hold multiple operator licences together with current case law that permits such use so long as all licences, (operator, vehicle and driver) are issued by the same authority that issued the operator licence, makes enforcement difficult, if not impossible. We have attempted to address the issue with a new private hire operator condition that the operator must operate from a base situated in our area. This condition together with where a vehicle can then be dispatched from is included in the pending appeal mentioned above.

10. Illegal plying for hire by private hire vehicles and ‘out of town’ hackney carriages is also a problem perceived by the licensed hackney carriage trade in our area. Test purchase exercises are carried out jointly with the police on a planned basis, currently a minimum of four times per year. Whilst we have had success during such exercises they are costly to carry out, requiring a minimum of five staff plus a police officer and a marked police patrol vehicle working approximately 25 man hours per exercise. This is then followed by associated court costs for the prosecution of the offending driver and sometimes an operator.

11. The requirement for this type of enforcement could be resolved by the abolition of the current two tier licensing system. The only differentials to the two types of licences in this authority are that hackney carriage vehicles must be black in colour and hackney carriage drivers are required to undertake a topography test. Some members of the trade are now starting to question this requirement with the development of satellite navigation systems. Plus it is considered from experience that the general public do not understand the difference and probably do not care either when they come out of the nightclub late at night they are only interested in getting the first available car home.

12. Stockton Borough Council has attempted to address a lot of local issues by adopting a comprehensive Private Hire and Hackney Carriage Licensing Policy a copy of which can be viewed via the following link: http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/stockton/Transport%20Forms/TransportPolicy09.doc , but as mentioned above parts of this are subject to an appeal to the courts despite carrying out extensive consultations with both the trade and interested stakeholders.

13. The model hackney carriage byelaws are considered out of date and inadequate for purpose.

14. Stockton Borough Council would welcome new primary legislation to licence a single tier of taxis with the possible introduction of new National Standards for both vehicles and drivers, locally applied to provide for national uniformity, a simpler administration, adequate supervision and an effective enforcement regime,

December 2010