If you are a taxi driver or drive a private hire vehicle or run a business involving one or the other or both then you will be interested to read that the Government has recently tightened up with regard to the licensing of drivers.

Whilst most taxi drivers and drivers of private hire vehicles are respectable and trustworthy and do not present a threat to their passengers there are occasions when this is not the case. If a taxi driver had their license suspended due to some form of misconduct then, in the past, it could be possible for that person to apply for a license with another local authority.

Well, that changed from the 27th April 2023 when the Department of Transport announced that councils must check a central database containing details of taxi drivers and private hire vehicle drivers who have had their licenses removed for some form of misconduct.

As a result, this will hopefully increase safety for passengers – in particular for female passengers as if a taxi driver has had his license revoked by council A but applies to another council B that later council should pick up any data from this national database when doing the search.

Apparently, this new process has been welcomed by a number of campaign groups.

So, if a taxi driver or private hire vehicle driver has his or her license either revoked, refused or suspended by one council and applies to another council it should be picked up on this database that is looked after by the National Anti-Fraud Network.

As we said above there are no doubt a limited number of cases where taxi drivers loose their license for misconduct but let’s be honest one is too many. Anything that can be done to safeguard passengers in taxis or private hire vehicles has got to be welcomed. It would be interesting to see some statistics relating to this topic at some point in the future.