Taxi Driver Online

This certainly goes against the grain in the UK context, but of course Scotland has a different system, and there's not the same grooming gang thing that's changed things down south in the past decade or so (and looks set to further change things in the future).

But you'd have thought that, with Scotland making fairly fundamental change to the national legislation in recent years, there would be a national approach to this kind of thing.

But it would seem not


Inverclyde Council taxi driver criminal record rules review

https://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/new ... es-review/

INVERCLYDE councillors are set to consider relaxing the rules on criminal record checks for taxi driver applicants in the area who were born outside the UK.

Two potential revisions to the council’s current policy will go before members of the authority’s ‘general purposes board’ later this month.

Currently, anyone seeking a taxi or private hire vehicle (PHV) driver’s licence has to declare any previous convictions in their application.

They are also subject to a criminal record check from Police Scotland – but that check does not reveal details of any convictions outside the UK.

Applicants must also provide a criminal record check for any country where they have lived for six months or more.

But a new report, to go before the board on August 13, reveals that applicants from some nations have complained they cannot obtain that information because of the conflict in their home countries.

The report states: “There has been a noticeable increase in the number of applications from foreign nationals seeking a taxi/PHV driver’s licence in recent years.

“Most of these applicants reside locally with some applicants residing outwith the Inverclyde area.

“Whilst some foreign national applicants have been able to comply with the requirement to provide criminal record checks, most applicants from countries such as Syria, Afghanistan etc have advised licensing staff that they are unable to obtain a criminal record check from their country of origin due to the conflict within such countries.

“The council’s licensing section staff, when rejecting applications, have faced increased challenges from both applicants and their advisers in relation to the current approach.”

The report contains three options to be put before the board later this month:

(1) to continue with the status quo in relation to foreign nationals, whereby an application for a new licence from any applicant who is unable to produce the relevant criminal record check, is treated as incomplete, and therefore will not be processed;

(2) to remove the existing requirement relating to foreign nationals whereby a criminal record check must be produced from the applicant’s country of origin; to stipulate that such documentation should be produced, however to accept such applications for processing with a letter of explanation from the applicant as to why they are unable to produce the documentation, with this documentation being considered on a case by case basis;

(3) to amend the existing requirements to allow applications to be accepted for processing without criminal records checks from the country of origin in circumstances where applications are received from foreign nationals who have resided in the UK for a period of at least five years immediately prior to the date of the application, or such other period as appears reasonable to the board.

The report reveals that at least 12 local authorities in Scotland have specific information about criminal records checks for applicants who were born outside the UK.

In Edinburgh, where the current policy is similar to [[Inverclyde]]’s, there is a condition that ‘applications will be accepted from any applicant who immigrated to the UK with their parents, has resided in the UK since childhood, and is able to evidence such residence, but is unable to produce a criminal record documentation relating to the period when they were a child under the age considered to be below the age of criminal responsibility in Scotland’.

It's quite a tricky situation IMO, and I can see both sides of the argument.

It goes without saying that protection of the public is at the top of priorities when it comes to licensing (unless of course you work for Wolverhampton City Council), but some applicants who come to this country legally, having fled murderous regimes, cannot get letters of good conduct from those countries.

Maybe those applicants should have to show 3-5 years of good conduct within the UK, or be given 6-monthly licenses.

But like most licenses, they are given on trust, and as we have drivers who have worked many years in the trade yet have committed some horrendous crimes, then maybe there is no perfect answer.

_________________
IDFIMH

Maybe they should get a job in a factory for a few years ,build up a work pattern and place of residence
for a few years before applying to become a Taxi driver.

Whats with the urgency for these people to become Taxi drivers ?

the job situation in the Uk isn't great so I doubt factory jobs are available but remember they will want to work where they feel less minoritized and where cash and access to other needs is more plentiful.

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

Well at least they've heeded public opinion for once.

On the other hand, it seems that the strength of public opinion was in some way problematic because it was 'orchestrated', or whatever

And the current vetting process was retained not so much because of the potential threat to women in girls in particular.

More, it seems, because of the safety of the drivers who might have been granted a licence under relaxed vetting. Work that one out


Inverclyde criminal checks for taxi drivers won't be relaxed

https://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/new ... t-relaxed/

Criminal checks for taxi drivers born outside the UK will not be relaxed by Inverclyde Council following massive public opposition to the idea.

The proposal was highly unpopular with the public with almost 96 per cent of those who took part in a consultation saying they opposed any relaxation of the rules.

Provost Drew McKenzie supported keeping the rules as they are but said he wondered if an 'orchestrated campaign' may have lain behind the sheer scale of the opposition.

He told a meeting of the council's general purposes board that he was surprised that 'such a large percentage of people went for the same option', but added that comments made on social media on the subject 'certainly back up the results from the consultation'.

Anyone seeking a taxi or private hire vehicle (PHV) driver’s licence currently must declare previous convictions in their application.

A criminal check from Police Scotland is also carried out, but it doesn’t reveal details of any convictions outside the UK.

Applicants must provide a criminal record check for any country where they have lived for six months or more.

If the applicant is born outside the UK, and criminal record checks are not available for that country, the application is rejected.

The board unanimously voted to maintain the status quo.

A council officer said she did not know the number of current applicants to whom the rules as they stand apply, but that there were eight applicants last year, and that that had risen by a ‘significant number’.

Sergeant Kevin Craig from Police Scotland, who was also present at the board's meeting, said changing the rules could open up taxi drivers to being the target of racially-motivated abuse, citing an example of a taxi driver in Renfrewshire he said had been racially abused.

Sgt Craig said: “A fully licenced taxi driver was subject to some horrific racial abuse for a mistake that he had made.

"There was quite a large public outcry, and folk were then starting to say, ‘these folk are undocumented and have not provided criminal records checks'.

“If we're giving folk a bit of leeway, where they're not subject to the same stringent checks that all other drivers are, then there's a risk that even if they do provide a full, clear criminal records check, the drivers may become targets for unwarranted abuse as well.”

Cllr Jim Clocherty (Labour, Inverclyde North) supported maintaining the status quo but said there was a need for balance.

He said: “We've got to make sure that it's not seen as the taxi driver's fault because they're of a different colour or a different nationality, or that t that somehow allows passengers who might have different views from them to insult drivers.

"I just think we need to be balanced when we're talking about this.”

He added that it might be ‘better to see 11 innocent people not getting a licence’, to ensure that one with a criminal record did not.

Cllr Sandra Reynolds (SNP, Inverclyde West) raised a concern that children born abroad but raised in Scotland might be negatively affected by the current rules.

She said: “For instance, our Syrian new Scots have been here for quite a while, and their kids have gone through our school system. They will reach an age where they could drive, and be a taxi driver some time in the future. Does this affect them?”

Councillor Pam Armstrong (SNP, Inverclyde Central) said: “There can be an issue with unaccompanied minors. Previously in my career, I had had an issue with individuals who claimed to be younger than everybody thought they were.”

Cllr Innes Nelson (Independent, Inverclyde South West) said the issue should be dealt with in a sensitive manner because ‘you really don't know what [unaccompanied minors] have been through’.

A council officer said that City of Edinburgh Council had recently changed its policy to allow children born abroad but raised in Scotland an exemption, and suggested that was ‘something that the officers could look at in the future'.

Somehow I don't think there's much popular support for relaxing vetting on drivers born overseas

That said, I suspect more of the public might have supported the move if getting involved in this kind of thing was compulsory. But I suppose it's like fare consultations and the like - it's all about strength of feeling, inertia and the like. So those who support a fare rise tend to make a lot of noise, while those content with fares at prevailing levels don't do anything. So the numbers portrayed as being for and against a fare rise probably doesn't reflect the reality of opinion.

There was another piece a couple of weeks ago which stated the actual numbers. Don't think there's much else in the piece that's not been stated above, but this is the link if anyone feels the need.

Certainly quite a high number of responses, though. But whether that's the result of 'orchestration' or not probably depends on how you view these things

And, of course, the 'quality' of the opposition might depend on how precisely the consultation was done, and stuff like anonymisation and the like, but no point going there...

But, again, coming back to a comparison with the fare stuff, the recent Fife process involved dozens of identical 'pro forma'/template responses. Which again is either a good or bad thing depending on your view on the substantive issue.


Thousands oppose relaxing taxi criminal record checks in Inverclyde

https://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/new ... nverclyde/

[...] Of the 2,748 people who took part in the consultation, only 74 supported the idea.[...]