Taxi Driver Online

Not sure there was much chance of a Taxi Act 2020/21.

But there's no chance now.

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IDFIMH

I suspect it's quietly been sent to the archives never to see the light of day.

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Would this be the act that our council are already implementing?

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Grandad,

It was never put through parliament so i'm not sure which act they are implementing

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

This is what our Council are working to. Is this something different?
Statutory Taxi & Private Hire Vehicle Standards – July 2020 8.7 – 8.1

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Grandad,

yes the act sussex was referring to was the all encompassing draft legislation that would have replaced several different pieces of legislation with a single modern act which was put together with a great deal of effort by the law commission and then promptly ignored by the government.

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Grandad, as you'll be aware, this is Melton's 'Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing
Policy 2021':

https://www.melton.gov.uk/media/ppbgs51 ... y-2021.pdf

The document says that in developing the policy, one of the sources taken into consideration was the 'Department for Transport ‘’ Statutory Taxi & Private Hire Vehicle Standards: Best Practice Guidance‟ - July 2020'

Which is essentially what we call the DfT's best practice guidance.

The word 'Statutory' in the title seems to be a relatively recent thing. As far as I can make out, the Police and Crime Act 2017 gives the Secretary of State the power to issue statutory guidance on taxi and PHV licensing. This is the wording in the actual guidance:


https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... nglish.pdf

So I'm guessing this has just firmed things up a bit, and the former 'guidance' becomes 'statuory standards'. The 'statutory' bit just refers to the fact that the latest standards and guidance are specifically enabled in law.

But which is what your council's policy document is referring to. Of course, there have been new bits and pieces of legislation affecting the trade in the past few years, particularly the Deregulation Act 2015, stuff relating to DBS and safeguarding etc, the NR3 database, and the tax checks now required for the issue of badges.

But the basic legislation governing trade licensing - the 1847 and 1967 Acts - remain unchanged, effectively.

Don't these 2 words contradict each other a bit? Either it is statutory or it is guidance? To Me Statutory means that you have to do what is says and Guidance means that you have to consider it before making a decision.

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Grandad,

I agree entirely, Grandad, and 'statutory guidance' is a tad, er, oxymoronic

But I think it means, essentially, that it derives from legislation rather than just being guidance promulgated from nowhere.

I mean, a council could issue guidance on the use of card readers in taxis.

But the government could pass legislation instructing councils to issue guidance on the use of card readers in taxis, in which case it would be statutory guidance.

Of course, what's in the guidance isn't what might be described as hard law. But it could be more relevant to a legal action, say, if it derived from legislation rather than from nowhere.

For example, I think it's quite common for legislation to give the relevant secretary of state powers to issue guidance in the relevant area. Obviously such guidance won't have the status of law that legislation proper would, but it would probably be more compelling in a legal argument than if the guidance wasn't issued via statute.

I think

Another example might be where councils are issuing guidance on some topic, but not all of them are doing it. Legislation could be passed to ensure all councils issued guidance. It would still just be guidance, but it might then be described as statutory guidance.

Can't be bothered looking into the fine details with what's going on with the taxi stuff, but I'd guess it doesn't change things a whole lot, but it's all part of the government's drive to firm up all the safeguarding stuff, but without passing detailed legislation covering the whole sector.

And there might be a lot of politics involved too - there's not the political will to pass new legislation covering the whole lot, so they do bits and pieces, and the best practice guidance becomes 'statutory' rather than mere guidance.

Thus to that extent it may simply be more about PR and politics - the word 'statutory' simply makes it look like they're taking it more seriously, and to that extent local authorities might take it all a bit more seriously. (And a lot of it is obviously related to councils like Rotherham going rogue with regard to CSE, most obviously.)

And, of course, there's always a tension between councils wanting to do their own thing, free from meddling central government, and on the other hand Westminster politicians who bang the 'localism' drum and think councils should just be allowed to get on with it.

So maybe the DfT issuing 'statutory' guidance is more directly instructing local authorities what they should do, but without actually instructing them more firmly in terms of direct legislation.

I’ve always thought that ‘statutory guidance’ is basically the government telling you what to do.

With the one provisor that allows a council to not follow such guidance if they can come up with good reasons not to.

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IDFIMH