Taxi - House of Commons Briefing Paper

The House of Commons Library has recently published a briefing paper on the subject of Taxi which you can read here.

The briefing paper sets out the licensing arrangements for taxis and private hire vehicles (PHV) and their drivers and the enforcement of those licences. It also looks at some of the issues currently of concern to the industry and licensing authorities.

A Law Commission focused on Taxi legislation published their review in May 2014 making recommendations in the form of a draft Bill to revise, modernise and unify taxi legislation. The current framework is a mixture of several distinct pieces of legislation.

The Government has yet to publish a response to the draft bill although the previous Coalition Government implemented some minor changes to the law within the Deregulation Act 2015.

There were initially three measures in the Bill, but only two made it into the final act:

• to set a standard duration of three years for a driver's licence and a standard duration of five years for a PHV operator's licence, and 
• to allow a PHV operator to sub-contract a PHV booking to another operator who is licensed in a different licensing district outside London or based in London or in Scotland (section 11).

The third measure, which would have allowed people who do not hold a PHV driver's licence to drive a licensed PHV when the vehicle was not being used as a PHV was removed as the Bill was scrutinised in the House of Lords Committee stages. This is a common infraction which often catches family members such as a spouse driving their partners car to the shops for a pint of milk. Whether this measure will be revived in any future reform is to be seen.

We shall keep you updated on any proposed reforms.