Sadiq Khan slammed by Tories as public foot £7 million compensation bill for taxi drivers hit by licence delayshttps://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/ ... 92016.htmlSir Sadiq Khan was heavily criticised by the Conservatives after a compensation bill of more than £7 million was racked up due to delays in issuing licences to taxi and private hire vehicle drivers.
Nearly 18,000 drivers have already been given special payments by Transport for London due to the licensing problems.
They were granted compensation of between £300 and £500 under the Goodwill Payment Scheme.
The scheme was introduced at the start of the year to compensate taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) drivers whose livelihoods were affected by the licensing delays.
They were caused by the introduction of new licence processing software, coupled with the recovery from an earlier cyber security incident.
TfL was threatened with legal action due to the “significant hardship” suffered by minicab drivers waiting months to have their licences renewed.
The Tories stressed that the figures, which they obtained under a freedom of information (FOI) request, revealed the scale of the disruption caused by TfL's licensing failures.
Shadow Transport Secretary Richard Holden said: "Labour's Mayor of London once again proves his woeful administration is wasting Londoners millions of pounds and holding our capital back.”
He added: “It's about time that he got a grip of the entire system. This is simply a disgrace.”
Braintree MP Sir James Cleverly, who is the early frontrunner to be the Tory contender in the 2028 London mayoral contest, added: “Londoners deserve a transport system that works for those who rely on it and those who pay for it."
The compensation scheme was for drivers whose renewed licence was issued between 1 September 2024 and 31 December 2025.
A TfL spokesperson said: "We are very sorry to drivers who experienced issues with our processing times of private hire driver licences.
“We worked urgently and took a number of steps to mitigate the impact of licence processing delays, including the recruitment of additional staff and issuing short-term driver licences, where appropriate, to support existing PHV drivers.
“The licence renewal process is now in a consistently steady operating position, and we strengthened our support for first-time applicants.”
The FOI release showed that TfL made 17,972 compensation payments to taxi and private hire drivers after they were impacted by licensing delays.
The bill had risen to £7,642,120 by mid-June 2026, with London farepayers left footing the cost.
To qualify for the Goodwill Payment Scheme, a series of criteria needed to be met including:
* Being an existing taxi or PHV driver whose renewed licence was issued between 1 September 2024 and 31 December 2025
* The application to renew a licence must have been successful and the driver is now licensed and remained licensed
* The driver experienced a period of time where they were not licensed
* The driver must have passed any mandatory driver assessments before the licence expired
TfL is currently prioritising licence renewal for drivers whose permit is due to expire in the next six weeks so they can continue working without interruption.
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