Taxi Driver Online

Well if you want to know anything about the actual policy, then don't read this

A wasted opportunity if you're an anorak about licensing policies, but I suppose to the average reader of the BBC's piece here it might give a hint of how ridiculous a lot of this is, but then they'll just move on to the next article...

But when I first read this I thought it meant the council report was 4,000 pages long

But then the piece says it's 'hundreds' of page long.

But the actual document only seems to be around 200 pages


Lengthy taxi report compared to Harry Potter saga

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz6e1eyw7x6o


Image: BBC

Tackling the Harry Potter books would be easier than digesting a new report into an authority's taxi and private hire licensing policy, a councillor has claimed.

Mahmood Hussain compared the report to JK Rowling's multi-volume fantasy epic - more than 4,000 pages long - at a meeting of Luton Borough Council.

The Labour councillor, who represents Farley ward, said members would need time to peruse the taxi policy document, which runs to hundreds of pages.

But he said it was necessary because "public safety is paramount", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Background checks

According to the report, the borough's taxi and private hire policy had developed in a piecemeal fashion since 2018.

The administration and regulation committee was told the updated version reflected latest Department for Transport guidance.

Recommendations include drivers facing background checks every six months and "good character" certificates for applicants who have spent an extended period outside the UK.

Tony Ireland, the council's head of public protection, told the committee: "This was an opportunity with the new best practice guidance from the government to have a fresh policy, which hopefully is easier to read and understand."

Councillors agreed to return the report to the committee before recommending it for approval.

I'm sure safety is paramount

But does he mean the document is 'necessary' because safety is paramount, or that reading it is 'necessary' because safety is paramount?

Looking at the document, I suspect there's not a lot of point in councillors going through it all

Anyway, this seems to be the preamble report to the committee here, and the actual policy document below that:

https://democracy.luton.gov.uk/cmis5pub ... Ff55vVA%3d

https://democracy.luton.gov.uk/cmis5pub ... Ff55vVA%3d

Most similar documents tend to be more like one hundred pages, so this one's about double that

But a quick look through suggests it contains lots of detail about policies, conditions and by-laws that would normally be contained in separate documents.

Or maybe they just do contain a lot more detail than most councils. Our publicly available council documentation in Fife certainly doesn't get into the kind of nitty-gritty of detail (about convictions policy, for example) that's obvious even from a quick look at the Luton document.

An extended version of the same piece by the same journalist in Luton Today, which outlines the substance rather than sensationalism

And, as is stated below, the document in question is basically seven different parts, so it's mabye just an amalgamation of stuff that other councils would probably retain in separate documents, hence the 200+ pages length.


Councillor claims Harry Potter books a quicker read than Luton's new taxi hire and private licensing policy

https://www.lutontoday.co.uk/news/polit ... cy-5604206

Reading Harry Potter books would be easier for borough councillors than digesting a new taxi and private hire licensing policy for Luton, a meeting heard.

The council was discussing a report into Luton Borough Council’s taxi and private hire licensing, with one councillor warning they needed to be given time to read the hundreds of pages.

LBC’s taxi and private hire licensing policy dating from 2018 has developed in a piecemeal fashion over many years, according to the report to its administration and regulation committee.

Final approval has been delayed for the policy document, which takes into account fresh Department of Transport (DfT) best practice guidance and the updated advice from the Institute of Licensing, said the report.

“The government expects the statutory taxi and private hire vehicle standards to be implemented unless there’s a compelling local reason not to do so. This would see licensing standards better aligned nationally and help address the issues of out-of-district working.

“The statutory standards state: ‘When formulating a taxi and private hire vehicle policy, the primary objective must be to protect the public’.

“Where councils have ignored or only partly adopted the key safety measures then the DfT intends to hold them to account. The main statutory standards elements include:

- six-monthly disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks;
- certificates of good character for applicants spending an extended period outside the UK;
- mandatory safeguarding training;
- language proficiency;
- driver proficiency;
- consideration of CCTV in vehicles as an additional deterrent;
- and DBS checks for private hire operators, individual, company or partnership, as well as booking and dispatch staff.

“The use of NR3S (central database of refusals, revocations and suspensions) and reporting of incidents to other licensing authorities became mandatory in the Taxi and Private Hire Vehicles (Safeguarding and Road Safety) Act 2022.”

LBC’s head of public protection Tony Ireland told the committee: “This was an opportunity with the new best practice guidance from the government to have a fresh policy, which hopefully is easier to read and understand.

“The seven-part policy document has been subject to discussion with the taxi trade, councillors and officers,” he explained. “The thrust of this is to make the policy reflect the key elements introduced in the statutory standards.

“Among things put forward were tinted windows for private hire vehicles. The policy was drafted on the basis there would be an increase in the level of tint allowed.

“Beyond a certain level those vehicles would be expected to be for executive use purposes only. The general view was not to mandate CCTV in taxis, which this policy reflects. For vehicle signage, it keeps the status quo.

“There was plenty of feedback on those three elements. There were 258 responses received, of which 91 were repeat or identical comments. There would be at least a six-month transition process on approval to gradually bring in all these elements.

“Tinted windows could be put in quickly. But for some of the other aspects, such as training and a penalty points scheme, it could take a little longer. It’s proposed to consider reviewing the policy in five years’ time.”

Labour Farley councillor Mahmood Hussain suggested Harry Potter would be easier for members to peruse than the hundreds of pages of the report, warning: “We need to take time reading this because public safety is paramount.”

He asked for the report to return to the committee before being recommended for approval, which was agreed.

The B&H Taxi and PH Blue Blue Book is 109 pages, and I suspect no more than a dozen folks have ever read it in full.

https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/sites/ ... dition.pdf

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IDFIMH