Ah. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's the usual touting/plying for hire conflation/confusion thing going on here.
Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but in a nutshell this is how I see it.
No one in the trade can
tout for passengers (unless maybe some kind of ride-sharing scenario, and I mean that in the conventional sense rather than the Uber bollocks - see the link to the relevant legislation below).
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 wrote:
167 Touting for hire car services.
(1)Subject to the following provisions, it is an offence, in a public place, to solicit persons to hire vehicles to carry them as passengers.
(2)Subsection (1) above does not imply that the soliciting must refer to any particular vehicle nor is the mere display of a sign on a vehicle that the vehicle is for hire soliciting within that subsection.
Touting means 'soliciting' or 'importuning' (which is the word used in our Fife conditions, which I think is standard in Scotland), which is a proactive thing, essentially involving actively approaching customers in a public place, or maybe shouting at them from a passing car (which one HCD in St Andrews was reputed to do if he thought he saw a likely fare

)
But neither HCDs nor PHDs can solicit.
Plying for hire is a more passive activity, and simply involves the driver and vehicle plying for trade by their mere presence in a particular area (which seems to be what's alluded to in the subsection (2) exemption above). Of course, only HCs can legally ply for hire, and they must be in-area.
So a PHV can neither tout/solicit nor ply for hire. An HC can ply for hire, but can't tout.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/19 ... taxi-touts