Taxi Driver Online

Oxford City Council fears over legal loophole with taxi licensing that could open door for child abuse


A LOOPHOLE allowing taxi drivers from other areas to work in Oxford could be closed as part of moves to protect young people.

Concern is growing about national rules that allow drivers licensed in one area to operate anywhere, regardless of differences in standards.

Officials say it allows hackney carriage drivers to avoid tougher standards in Oxford by getting credentials elsewhere and then working in the city for private hire firms.

Last year Oxford City Council estimated there were about 300 Hackney Carriages not licensed by it operating in the city, mainly on Friday and Saturday nights.

But now an influential committee of MPs has called on the Government to close the loophole.

Their comments come after a review of efforts to tackle child exploitation in Oxfordshire – carried out in the wake of the Bullfinch child sexual abuse investigation – warned the loophole made it harder to keep children safe because the authority that issues the licence is responsible for enforcement.

Colin Cook, vice-chairman of the city council's licensing committee, said: "At the moment, it is in theory possible for someone to get a hackney carriage licence in the worst enforcement authority in the country, wherever that is, and still come and work in Oxford.

"We do what we can to make sure most are licensed here by us, but there is an increasing minority now coming from elsewhere and it can become more problematic when you are having to rely on them taking enforcement action."

The Communities and Local Government Committee's call was part of a review of the situation in Rotherham, which was at the centre of a child sexual abuse scandal, where measures to introduce CCTV were being "undermined" by neighbouring areas that do not require it.

The committee said: "We believe local authorities must be able to apply particular measures in relation to taxi licensing in their areas, such as requiring taxis to have CCTV installed, without those measures being undermined by taxis coming in from other areas."

In Oxford, the city council has previously complained that higher standards in the city were being undermined by neighbouring authorities, including training in safeguarding. They have been working towards joint enforcement agreements but have yet to reach a deal.

But Mark Green, director of 001 Taxis in Oxford, said his firm needed to use drivers from "across Oxfordshire" because it operated over the whole county.

He added: "If councils wants to do more about these issues, they should raise standards together. We have an operator's license for every area and have no problem taking people on across Oxfordshire.

"The fees outside Oxford are cheaper for drivers but they still have to do the same DBS (disclosure and barring service) checks, so it is not a safeguarding issue."

source: http://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/news ... ild_abuse/

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

mark green doesn't say how his "[edited by admin] takers" park in all the prominent places taking private bookings, when you complain about this the licensing council says they can, hang on they're supposed to be working for Royal or 001 and taking bookings directly from them.

he also doesn't say how his "[edited by admin] takers" drive around being clueless as to where to take the customer, rather like the uber drivers as long as they have a sat nav and a hear beat - job done.

finally a lot of the drivers that go down the out of town route have been in trouble with oxford city council, and know once they become "[edited by admin] takers", oxford city council cant do nothing as the council they are licensed by never do any type of enforcement, its purely about revenue generation for south Oxfordshire/ vale of white horse.

as for the local LO, hes petrified that if he brings any conditions in, 001/Royal ( remember these guys merged because of uber supposedly, but because one party started nicking the other partys work, they split up) will move completely out of area this denying them valuable revenue for their pensions etc....

we've suggested conditions like other councils have done, but like I said the LO is petrified.....

basically the judge who let this happen in the first place is

Perhaps there are a couple of things that could be done here. Firstly have a set of national standards for all drivers and second allow a licensing authority to enforce the rules on any driver working in their district.

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Grandad,

If they operate elsewhere then get them licensed to work in those areas.

Or maybe get them licensed as Oxford PH, they can then work wherever they are needed, but they will have to adhere to Oxford's licensing criteria.

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IDFIMH

That's kind of what the Law Commission said.

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IDFIMH

We need national standards like we have in the bus industry. Simple.

I sort of agree, but part of me thinks the national level will be a pi** poor level.

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IDFIMH