Taxi Driver Online

Not a topic I know much about (we have a totally different system in Scotland), but I'd guess this is a tad 'round the houses' for those who do know a bit about it all...


Up to 120 taxi drivers in Greater Manchester face ‘immediate suspension’

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... r-31778681

The drivers have so far failed to give consent for enhanced criminal records checks to be made by the council's licensing department

Up to 120 taxi drivers operating in Bury face ‘immediate suspension’ as they have not agreed to enhanced criminal record checks.

The council said ‘a large proportion’ of licensed drivers had agreed for the local authority to undertake a check to see if they are registered for the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) update service.

The town hall said that despite several emails being sent to all drivers to obtain their consent, 120 licensed private hire and Hackney Carriage drivers had failed to respond.

Licensing chiefs are now seeking powers ‘to immediately suspend those drivers’ licences until consent has been given’.

The DBS update service is an online subscription that allows individuals to keep their DBS certificate up to date.

More importantly, it enables employers and licensing authorities, such as Bury council, to check whether any relevant information has changed since the certificate was issued, without the need to submit a new DBS application each time.

The enhanced checks help the council decide whether to suspend, revoke or refuse to renew the licence of any taxi driver who has been convicted of an offence involving dishonesty, indecency or violence.

A report by Bury council’s licensing chief, Michael Bridge, requesting the new powers to suspend drivers, has been published this week.

He said: “Members may recall that the licensing service has conducted a procurement exercise in relation to the checking of applicants and existing licence holders of Hackney Carriage and private hire criminal records.

"The service has been requested to obtain the consent of every licensed driver to undertake a check to see if the licence holder is registered for the DBS update service.

“This has resulted in several emails being sent to all licensed drivers to obtain their consent to undertake this check.

"We have received consent for a large proportion of the drivers, however there are still 120 outstanding as at May 21, 2025.

“Therefore, the service are requesting delegation to immediately suspend under the Road Safety Act those Hackney Carriage and private hire drivers licences until the consent has been given.”

In 2023, Bury Council said there were 33 hackney carriage vehicles and 752 private hire vehicles licensed in Bury.

If those figures remain similar, it means that around 15 per cent of taxi drivers registered with Bury Council face suspension.

The report added that there were no specific financial issues arising from granting the new powers other than potential costs associated with legal appeals.

Members of the council’s licensing and safety committee will meet on Friday, June 6 to consider the request to suspend the licences of drivers who have failed to give consent for the enhanced checks.

It's strange that your mob doesn't operate a similar system, because it's basically a one-and-done process.

Which does beg the question as to why those drivers in Bury haven't signed up.

Drivers simply sign up to the automatic DBS process, think it's about 15-20 a year, might be less, and the checks are done by the council as many times as they wish, without having to contact drivers each time.

Last time I filled in a DBS form must have been 3-4 years ago.

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IDFIMH

dbs update was optional for us and I am not entirely sure it can be made mandatory

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

It is mandatory here and it is checked every 3 weeks. I believe that Wannabees is checked daily.

It's all very straightforward from my perspective as an applicant, to be fair, because we have absolutely no input or contact into it whatsoever.

We just fill in the application, and the council does all the vetting stuff via Police Scotland. Behind the scenes, as I always say.

So I don't know the nuts and bolts of what goes on up here, never mind down there. But I'd guess yours is more dynamic, in that it'll alert licensing councils to any changes, while ours will depend on the driver informing the council of any changes.

But which is probably why we often see reports from Glasgow of a driver doing something naughty early on during the tenure of a three-year badge, but it's only considered when he comes to renew his badge a couple of years later, and Police Scotland object to the renewal.

Incidentally, think I've finally worked out why councils don't normally revoke up here. Could be wrong, but historically I think councils could only suspend, and only the courts could revoke

But I think that's all changed in the last few years, and the legislation was amended to allow revocations (the same legislation that introduced the PH overprovision test ).

But maybe there's a kind of historical legacy meaning that they still normally only suspend. And I think the default suspension period is 'for the unexpired currency of the licence', or whatever the wording is. Thus effectively a suspended driver would have to reapply to get his badge back once it's expired, which obviously militates against him getting it back.

A bit round the houses this for anyone who's read the above and knows this topic, but in summary they've had three reminder emails so far, and will be getting a letter by post despite concerns about the cost and manpower implications.

But a decent article in terms of explanation for the likes of me, and in terms of the committee debate.


108 taxi drivers given final chance before licences suspended

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... l-31805950

More than one in nine drivers in Bury haven't responded to three emails requesting they agree to enhanced criminal records checks

More than 100 taxi drivers are facing imminent suspension in Bury after failing to reply to three council emails regarding criminal background checks.

Councillors in Bury heard the authority is still awaiting a response from 108 private hire or Hackney carriage drivers registered in the borough.

All have so far failed to respond to three emails requesting consent to undertake a check to see if they are registered for the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) update service.

All drivers have a current DBS certificate but the council’s licensing chief, Michael Bridge, told a meeting of the council licensing and safety committee that they needed to know whether drivers are on the update service for ‘public safety and to ensure that drivers are fit and proper to hold their licence’.

The DBS update service is an online subscription that allows individuals to keep their DBS certificate up to date.

More importantly, it enables employers and licensing authorities, such as Bury council, to check whether any relevant information has changed since the certificate was issued, without the need to submit a new DBS application each time.

The enhanced checks help the council decide whether to suspend, revoke or refuse to renew the licence of any taxi driver who has been convicted of an offence involving dishonesty, indecency or violence.

Mr Bridge told the meeting that the licensing service had sent three emails out on March 25, April 2 and April 15 requesting the license holder to give permission to check whether they have registered for enhanced checks.

He said 798 drivers had given consent but there had been ‘no response’ from the remaining 108.

In a report to councillors, Mr Bridge, requested to to be given the power to ‘immediately suspend under the Road Safety Act those Hackney Carriage and private hire drivers licences until the consent has been given’.

He told the meeting: “There will be a final opportunity for drivers to provide the necessary consent to allow the licensing service to undertake the check.

“If this final deadline is missed we will suspend their taxi driver’s licence until that consent is given. We are not looking to revoke we’re looking to suspend, until that consent is obtained.

“If they were out of the country or ill and could not respond then the licence will be reinstated as soon as consent is given.” He added: “I don’t know why they haven’t come back.

“We have to draw the line somewhere on how many times we keep ask for consent.”

The meeting heard that the preferred contact method for taxi licensing communication was by email, with drivers supplying documents and licence applications made online.

Chair of the committee, Coun, Tahir Rafiq, said the remaining drivers should be given another chance to respond after being contacted by post.

He said: “Maybe not everybody has access to emails. “I propose that an actual letter is sent out to each and every one of those people’s home addresses.”

Coun Gareth Staples-Jones, said: “There have been three emails sent out. “There is a cost issue for the council now having to pay to send letters out.

“If they’ve failed to reply on three occasions it feels a little bit odd that we would then go out of our way with financial implications to the council, to chase up that person.

“It’s their responsibility to get back to us.”

The committee decided that it would grant the suspension powers to the licensing department and would give drivers another chance to give consent to the checks through a mailed out letter.

I'd guess that, as is often the case with stuff like this, the drivers have basically moved on. I mean, it's the gig economy, innit?

Of course, there may be problems with email etc, but I'm surprised the 'licensing chief' doesn't suggest the reason which to me seems the most obvious one.

To be fair, though, in terms of drivers having had enough, the proportion not responding as compared to the total does seem quite high