To receive a report regarding changes to legislation (and proposed changes) affecting Hackney Carriage and Private Hire licensing.
Minutes:
The Committee had before it and NOTED a report * from the Director of Corporate Affairs and Business Transformation regarding changes to legislation (and proposed changes) affecting Hackney Carriage and Private Hire licensing.
The Lead Licencing Officer explained that the purpose of the report was to inform the Committee of proposed changes to the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire licensing process as a result of the Policing and Crime Bill and the Immigration Act 2016.
The officer informed the Committee that the new legislation would mean officers checking the immigration status to work in this country for both new applicants and current licence holders. Officers had undertaken Home Office training and were having to re-send some application forms that had already been sent out due to changes in information required. Officers would need to sit down with applicants and those renewing licences to check documents such as passports, which in the short term would generate a lot of additional work. Some authorities who had already converted to online applications were having to revert back to face to face work.
The Lead Licencing Officer informed Members that it was important to learn lessons from what had taken place in Rotherham. He provided a brief summary of what had been reported about Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council following investigations that had revealed that over 1400 children had been sexually exploited between 1997 and 2013.
Inspectors had found that Rotherham was behind the times as the licensing service appeared to have few written policies and attempts to draw them up were stymied by interested parties. Inspectors found that the Council’s conditions relating to vehicle, driver and operator licences had not changed since 1976, bearing out this contention.
The officer reminded Members that the Mid Devon District Council policy had been reviewed earlier in the year and the document was lengthened to include a number of appendices to ensure the majority of policies and procedures were located in one place. The Policy regarding previous convictions had been greatly expanded and also included ‘other relevant information’, (not necessarily convictions) that would impact on whether or not someone should be considered fit and proper. The team were currently awaiting new guidance from the Department of Transport and once this was available would once again review the policy to ensure it reflected best practice, in as far as this is possible.
The officer informed Members that the licensing team were looking at introducing training for Hackney Carriage and Private Hire drivers around the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults. A further report outlining the specifics of this training would be brought to this committee in the first quarter of 2017 for discussion and agreement.
Discussion took place regarding:
· Taxi drivers were in a position to see a lot that was going on within the district such as a child being transported in a distressed state and should be encouraged to report this;
· The use of the DVLA database to ensure that driving licences were valid.
Note: - Report * previously circulated and attached to Minutes.
Supporting documents: