I think your concerns are disproportionate.
Who checks if drivers are actually licensed when they are working miles from away now? in fact who even checks them if you are out of your own town centre now?
My spouse can already drive our cars because she is licensed.
Does all licensing have to be about what is in the public interest? Can't it also be about the efficient running of the licensing department and the efficient use of resources? Why shouldn't I be able to help out a regular customer who happens to need a car in another town by booking it for them and putting the cost on their account with me?

i don't think theyre in the interests of the public,

Yes you did.

my concerns are about safety

Depends where you hire them - some licensing regimes (and this will be repeated below) allow taxis to operate as PH many miles away from there area of license - it is fair to suggest these hackneys are never subject to council spot checks and they may never see their area of license - they may even send their MOT to the ir licensing department by post.

The London Act has always allowed non licensed drivers to drive PH - but there has been an increase - a 14% increase between 2008 and 2010.

I don't think the problem is with the London PH trade - its with the provincial PH trade who have sourced HC's from the likes of Rossendale and Gedling and Berwick - the issue is likely to get worse because the conditions of license towards PH are invariably lower than HC.

I understand that, but the Dereg Act doesn't make that any better or any worse.

For PH we can work anywhere anyway.

Yes but there is one central point for contact, ie. the operator in your licensed area, this would not be the case if nobody knows what area you are working from

For smaller operators such as myself who often take bookings by mobile phone on the road, it is difficult to keep paper records of anything, so such things are rather academic. Everyone who discusses this matter only ever sees it in the context of the radio circuits, nobody ever sees the small operator's perspective, a point which I made rather loudly at the LC seminar I attended.

Don't your council check your private hire booking records? This is one thing that our council do actually check.

never had any of my records checked in the 20 years I was involved in a taxi / PH business by the council

But did you keep the records just in case?

books and books of the f*cking things