Thr Deregulation Bill did indeed get
Royal Assent yesterday. We now await the commencement date which may be as far away as
October or even longer.

It looks like 1st October is the day.

Gutted or what. Our private Hire Operators License is due for renewal on September 22nd.

Remind me what difference that makes?

Well when you are on the council you can speed up it's implementation.

Nothing stopping your council offering 5 year licenses now.

As it stands at the the moment, I think they want to keep things as they are regardless. The Councilors seem to believe what they are told by the licensing department. They never question anything without a prompt.

As it stands at the the moment, I think they want to keep things as they are regardless. The Councilors seem to believe what they are told by the licensing department. They never question anything without a prompt.

Well it's time to put the pressure on, start requesting it now, use a little bluff,say it's passed royal assent,your council are not the brightest they may not know it starts on the 1st of October,and this is not set in stone, after the election a new Government Minister could remove this Statutory Instrument with a flick of his wrist.

Who knows, but I think the reason I'm optimistic is I don't think the world will end via the cross border provisions in the Dereg Bill.

Down here elements of the trade are indeed in panic mode, but I think they are getting confused with the proposals from the Law Commission.

The Dereg Bill/Act states;

55ASub-contracting by operators

(1)A person licensed under section 55 who has in a controlled district accepted a booking for a private hire vehicle may arrange for another person to provide a vehicle to carry out the booking if—
(a)the other person is licensed under section 55 in respect of the same controlled district and the sub-contracted booking is accepted in that district;
(b)the other person is licensed under section 55 in respect of another controlled district and the sub-contracted booking is accepted in that district;
(c)the other person is a London PHV operator and the sub-contracted booking is accepted at an operating centre in London; or
(d)the other person accepts the sub-contracted booking in Scotland.

Highlighted and underlined is basically the new bit, that clause isn't going to be used by large call centers dishing out work direct to non local drivers.

Can we have a little wager on the number of councils that simply issue a 3 year badge and multiply the annual cost by 3 ?

keep voting fools

Tell that to Uber, they're already doing it, Stockport,Salford,Bolton and even Leeds taking fares in the City of Manchester

But if the work is being dispatched via a server in the local licensing area it's legal.