Agenda item

To provide the Committee with an update following the implementation of the new Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy.

Back in Public Session

Decision

The Committee requested that the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy be reviewed again in June 2025 to understand whether the changes to the Policy had any further impact on new and/or renewal applications.

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Governance and Licensing presented a report which provided the Committee with an update following the implementation of the new Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy which was approved by Council on 23 May 2024.

Notification of the new Policy was issued to all licence holders outlining the main changes to the policy prior to the scheduled implementation date of 1 June 2024 for new drivers and 1 August 2024 for existing drivers. 

Feedback received at that time covered: the increase in costs for the new testing requirements, why existing drivers without complaints were required to undertake a driver proficiency test, why a driver needed to demonstrate they had a qualification in English or take an English test especially when they had lived in England their whole life, the age criteria of vehicles and the requirement for daily walkaround checks.

The Licensing Committee considered these points at the meeting held on Friday 28 June 2024 where three drivers attended to outline their concerns and these were listed within the report.  The Licensing Committee agreed that the new Policy would be reviewed after at least a three month period with a focus on the requirement of undertaking the daily walk around check and the English language test as well as evaluate the charges applied by other local authorities.

Appendix 1 to the report showed a table giving the licence fees for neighbouring authorities including South Kesteven District Council.  Overall South Kesteven appeared to be the third expensive with Peterborough City Council being the most expensive and Wolverhampton the cheapest.

The report listed the many factors that had to be taken into consideration in setting fees which had to cover costs but not make any profit.

Some authorities had indicated that it was likely that their costs would increase.  It was noted that drivers were free to apply for a licence outside of where they lived there was no national rule.

At the time that the report was written there had been 21 renewals, 12 non-renewals and one driver had taken an English test.  It was not known the reason for the non-renewals.

Table 3.8 of the report showed the number of Drivers, Vehicles and Operators at six monthly intervals since September 2022 and then from June 2024 to Nov 2024.   Although some licences had fallen there was no statistical evidence that the fall was due to the changes in the Policy.

The Committee was able to look at individual or exceptional circumstances as per the application that had been previously dealt with earlier in the agenda.

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Governance and Licensing proposed that the Committee ask for a further review once more information was available possibly in April 2025.  He then spoke about the testing and the misunderstandings that had arisen regarding how many times a test needed to be undertook.  Unless further tests were required due to issued that had arisen, the driving proficiency test and the English test only had to be undertaken once, for new drivers 1 June 2024 or renewal licences from 1 August 2024.

South Kesteven District Council wanted their drivers to be the best drivers within the hackney carriage/private hire trade which is why the policy needed to be adhered to.

Discussion then followed on the Policy with comments being made about vehicles licensed outside the district but being seen within South Kesteven to which is was clarified that these could be school contracts.  Vehicles from outside the district could only pick up passengers that had pre booked the vehicle, hackney carriages which were licensed from outside the district could not just pick up people off the street, the vehicle had to be pre booked.

Further discussion followed about the English Test and it was stated that the figures shown in the report were as at the time of the report being written.  The Licensing Manager indicated that since the new policy had been in place and since the report had been written there had been four English tests taken but she couldn’t confirm how many renewals had been completed since the report had been written.   A question was asked about those taking the English test who had Dyslexia and it was stated that this was taken into account.

It was felt that more statistical evidence was needed to see whether the new Policy had affected the number of licences renewed or issued.  The Assistant Director (Governance and Public Protection) stated that due to elections next year purdah started from 21 March 2025 so he advised that the review was carried out after this election period.

After a short discussion on the time period, it was proposed, seconded and agreed that the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy be reviewed again in June 2025 to understand whether the changes to the Policy had any further impact on new and/or renewal applications.