Taxi Driver Online

Leeds Council shreds CRB data. Probably most other councils do toooo?

http://www.leedstoday.net/ViewArticle2. ... ID=1714757

Regards

JD
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Yorkshire Evening Post

August 23, 2006

HEADLINE: Council shreds data on criminal cabbies

By Paul Robinson

TAXI bosses in Leeds today admitted they have NO IDEA how many of the city's cabbies have a criminal record.

Hundreds of people a year are granted private hire or hackney carriage driver permits by Leeds City Council after undergoing checks on their past lives.

But, the YEP can reveal, details of offences uncovered during the vetting process are shredded as soon as a licence is awarded.

No running totals are kept on the number of drivers who have fallen foul of the law. Council bosses also confirmed that a person can theoretically win a permit even if they have committed crimes such as indecent assault, kerb crawling, robbery and perverting the course of justice. Only the very worst crimes - such as murder, manslaughter and rape - will mean an automatic refusal.

Personal safety charity The Suzy Lamplugh Trust today described the UK's taxi licensing system as a "real cause for concern". A spokeswoman said: "It should never be forgotten just how much responsibility these drivers have. They deal with some extremely vulnerable people."

Leeds has around 4,500 cabbies, all of whom have to be licensed by the city council.

In the first six months of this year, more than 350 permits were given out. Less than 10 applications were refused. The council's head of taxi and private hire licensing, Des Broster, insisted it was doing as much as possible to keep passengers safe.

He said that, by disposing of information about drivers' convictions, the authority was simply complying with the rules of the Government's Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and the terms of the Data Protection Act.

Mr Broster told the YEP he believed a person's record was initially only relevant while his or her application was being considered.

If it needed to be looked at again - for example, if an existing cabbie declared a new conviction and the council had to decide whether to revoke their licence - then a fresh check could be made with the CRB.

Mr Broster said: "I would put our vetting regime up against anybody else's."

paul.robinsons@ypn.co.

Comment: Page 10
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Yorkshire Evening Post

August 23, 2006

HEADLINE: A gap in the law on taxi licensing

IMAGINE climbing into a car late at night with someone you knew had a conviction for indecent assault and asking them to drive you home.

You just wouldn't do it, would you?

But as the YEP reveals today, you may already have done so without knowing a thing about it.

Incredibly, licensing chiefs in Leeds admit they have no idea how many of the city's cab drivers have criminal records. To make matters worse, they confirm that even if criminal checks reveal the applicant has a criminal conviction it doesn't necessarily mean they will be turned down for a licence.

And these aren't petty crimes we're talking about here either. Indecent assault, kerb crawling, robbery and perverting the course of justice are not deemed serious enough for an automatic refusal.

But this isn't just a problem in Leeds - loony laws mean licensing authorities across the country are banned from keeping records of cab drivers' convictions. It's only if a driver declares a new conviction that the council can take another look at whether they should hold a licence.

Of course, the vast majority of cabbies in Leeds are polite, friendly, helpful and completely trustworthy. But this revelation is enough to make anyone think twice before they set foot inside a private hire car or hackney carriage late at night.

For the sake of the scores of law-abiding cab drivers and the public they serve it's time this system was changed.
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Surely there must be some requirement for them to keep the crb checks for a period of time ? Councils are required to recheck drivers every 3 years certainly they do round here

Criminal records is down to data protection, as far as I know councils or anyone else, excepting the police, cannot keep a computerised database of criminal records.

Regards

JD