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Fixing of fares for hackney carriages.
The fares to be charged to hirers of hackney carriages are determined by the district council, which may make byelaws for fixing the rates or fares, as well as for time as distance, to be paid for hackney carriages within its district, and for securing the due publication of those fares.
The Finance Act 1974 contains provisions which have effect for the purpose of facilitating the amendment of byelaws fixing the charges payable for hackney carriages (in the relevant provisions referred to as 'taxi fare byelaws').
Whenever the Secretary of State considers it proper to do so, he may by order authorise the local authority having power to amend any taxi fare byelaws to amend those byelaws by resolution so as to increase or reduce the charges thereby permitted with a view to offsetting any change in the costs of operating hackney carriages which is attributable to the imposition, variation or abolition of any tax or duty affecting those costs. An order under the relevant provision applies to all local authorities having such power in the area to which the order applies and may limit in any way that the Secretary of State thinks fit the power of amendment which it confers, and may include provision for securing that appropriate steps are taken to publish any resolution passed in pursuance of the order and to make copies available to the public.
The district council for an area to which Part II of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 197614 applies may fix the rates or fares within the district as well for a time as distance, and all other charges in connection with the hire of a vehicle or with the arrangements for the hire of a vehicle, to be paid in respect of the hire of hackney carriages by means of a table (referred to as a 'table of fares') made or varied in accordance with these provisions. When a district council makes or varies a table of fares it must publish in at least one local newspaper circulating in the district a notice setting out the table of fares or the variation of it and specifying the period, which must not be less than 14 days from the date of the first publication of the notice, within which and the manner in which objections to the table of fares or variation can be made. A copy of such a notice must for the period of 14 days from the date of the first publication of it be deposited at the offices of the council which published the notice, and must at all reasonable hours be open to public inspection without payment.
If no objection to a table of fares or variation is duly made within the period specified in the notice, or if all objections so made are withdrawn, the table of fares or variations comes into operation on the date of the expiration of the period specified in the notice or the date of withdrawal of the objection or, if more than one, of the last objection, whichever date is the later. If objection is duly made and is not withdrawn, the district council must set a further date, not later than two months after the first specified date, on which the table of fares is to come into force with or without modifications as decided by it after consideration of the objections.
A table of fares so made or varied is to have effect for the purposes of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 as if it were included in hackney carriage byelaws made under that Act. On the coming into operation of a table of fares so made by a council for the district, any hackney carriage byelaws fixing the rates and fares or any table of fares previously made for the district, as the case may be, cease to have effect.
If a hackney carriage is hired and taken to any place and there required to wait, the driver may demand his fare to that place and also a deposit over and above that, calculated according to the time he is required to wait. If a person refuses to pay the legal fare it may be recovered summarily as a civil debt with costs.
4 See the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 s 68; and para 1089 ante. A local authority may not attempt to control fares by refusing to grant licences on the ground that fares charged are excessive: R v Farnborough UDC, ex p Aldershot District Traction Co [1920] 1 KB 234, DC.
7 An order under the Finance Act 1974 s 55 must be contained in a statutory instrument subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament, and may be revoked or varied by a subsequent order under it: s 55(5).
8 Where a byelaw is amended by virtue of s 55, the amendment has effect as if made under the same power as that under which the byelaw was made, and (without prejudice to any power of amendment exercisable by virtue of s 55) the byelaw may accordingly be amended by a subsequent exercise of the power under which the byelaw was made: s 55(4).
9 For the purposes of s 55(2) the costs of operating hackney carriages are to be taken to include any tax charged by reference to the charges payable for such carriages: s 55(2).
14 Ie the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 Pt II (ss 45–80) (as amended). As to the application of Pt II (as amended).
26 Town Police Clauses Act 1847 s 57. It is an offence for the driver of a hackney carriage who has received a proper deposit to refuse to wait, or to go away, or permit his carriage to be taken away, without the hirer's consent, before the expiration of the time covered by the deposit, or to refuse to account for such deposit when finally discharged: s 57. A person guilty of such an offence is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 1 on the standard scale: s 52 (amended by virtue of the Criminal Justice Act 1982 s 46). As to the standard scale.
As to the penalty for demanding more than the sum agreed for see the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 s 54 (amended by virtue of the Criminal Justice Act 1982 s 46). As to an agreement to pay more than the legal fare see the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 s 55 (amended by virtue of the Criminal Justice Act 1982 s 46). As to agreements to carry passengers a discretionary distance for a fixed sum see the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 s 56 (amended by virtue of the Criminal Justice Act 1982 s 46).
27 The amount is recoverable only as a civil debt even though the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 s 66 provides that it may be recovered as a penalty, ie in the same way as a penalty: R v Kerswill [1895] 1 QB 1, DC. The court has consequently no power to mitigate the amount under the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 s 34 (see magistrates vol 29(2) (Reissue) para 810): see Leach v Litchfield [1960] 3 All ER 739, [1960] 1 WLR 1392, DC (decided under the Magistrates' Courts Act 1952 s 27 (repealed)). As to the summary recovery of civil debts see the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 s 58 (as amended); and magistrates vol 29(2) (Reissue) para 826.
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