Taxi Driver Online

South Wales Evening Post

July 26, 2006 Wednesday

HEADLINE: Cabbies call for u-turn on checks

BYLINE: Terry Crockford

Swansea taxi drivers are calling for a council U-turn on plans for more frequent criminal record checks on them. They say they are being discriminated against and treated like second-class citizens. They claim there are many other professions with more regular and direct access to vulnerable people who don't get the same kind of scrutiny.

They are now pressing for a U-turn on the issue.

Black cab owner-driver Julie Jones said: "Is the council saying that we are more likely to assault a child or injure an elderly person? They are treating us like second-class citizens." She and other city taxi operators are objecting to council plans to enhance the level of checks on drivers.

At present, every driver undergoes an enhanced Criminal Record Bureau check on first applying for a licence and, thereafter, every three years at the time of licence renewal. Drivers pay £36 for those checks. From September, drivers will also have a further check every 12 months at a cost to them of £10. "I agree that checks are necessary on people who have contact with vulnerable people - children, the elderly and disabled," said Miss Jones.

"But there are other professions who have more regular and direct contact with vulnerable people, yet they are not subject to checks such as these. "For instance, teachers are subject to checks only when applying for a job and when changing jobs. They could stay in a job for 25 years and never have a further check.

"They're coming down hard on us. Why not make it across the board?"

Gill Morgan, for Swansea Taxi Owners Association, said in a letter to the council: "We feel aggrieved at being singled out in this way. We would ask that you check your records and determine how many serious convictions of a sexual nature have actually occurred to warrant an annual check on all taxi drivers." In the last three years, 3,250 hackney carriage and private hire driver licences have been issued in Swansea. Only 20 drivers were reported to the council's licensing committee for various offences committed during those three years. Only eight of those had failed to inform the committee of their convictions.

Taxi drivers will attend a licensing committee meeting on Friday in a bid to convince councillors they should abandon annual checks.
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Yes the CRB checks aren't cheap, but so what? Safety really isn't an issue we should be moaning about.

Simply add the costs to the fare review. Might even be a penny a job.

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IDFIMH