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Steve Wright: I sat before this Committee in 1993 and advocated a sensible Act for London, which is exactly what we have got. Now 40% of the private hire and taxi industry operates in London, without these ridiculous local controls. It has produced a safe, modern, less polluting taxi and private hire system than anywhere else in the country.

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Steve Wright: There is still work to do and there is more work to do with enforcement, but from the public’s point of view, the private hire service is without problem.

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Steve Wright: He also talked about the assaults that take place in private hire vehicles. They don’t take place in private hire vehicles at all; they take place in illegal cabs. They don’t take place in private hire vehicles. The Public Carriage Office has no records of any assaults whatsoever in the 4 million journeys a day in a prebooked private hire vehicle. They take place with the touts.

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Steve Wright: The second point I would make about the RMT thing is that the particular assault that he referred to is subject to a police inquiry so that is in process at the moment. A company like Addison Lee has done 27 million journeys in London with never a single complaint or a prosecution against a driver for anything. So I think we need to put that into context.
