Agenda item

To determine a private hire/hackney carriage drivers’ licence.

The driver in relation to Item 7 was not present and had given no notice that she intended to attend.

The Enforcement Officer gave a summary of the report.

The Council required all drivers to undergo an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and group 2 medical when they apply for a licence and  then every three years after that. The driver’s enhanced DBS check, group 2 medical and DVLA mandate had expired and the driver had not responded to attempts by the Council to contact her.

‘DECISION NOTICE

The application before the Panel today is for the suspension or revocation of the driver’s joint private hire/hackney carriage licence no PH/HC1242  in accordance with S61  (1) (b) Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976.- any other reasonable cause. She has been licenced in Uttlesford since 3^rd July 2015   and her current licence is due to expire on 30^th June 2019.

The Council requires all drivers to undergo an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, a group 2 medical examination, and to provide a DVLA mandate to allow annual scrutiny of driving records when they apply for a licence and every three years after that.   These checks assist the Council in establishing whether an individual is a ‘fit and proper’ person to hold a licence. The driver has not supplied any of these documents, and her DBS check and Group 2 certificate both expired on 30^th June 2018.

Normal practice at UDC is to send out reminder letters to drivers for DBS checks that are due to expire on the first working day of the month which precedes the month when the check expires.   The reminders for medicals are typically sent out on the 15^th day of the month preceding the expiry of that check.

The driver was formally contacted in writing by the Enforcement Officer on 9^th January 2019 and was told that if she wanted to remain licensed then she must provide these documents by 25^th January  2019. She has not done so. Condition 12 of Appendix A of the Council’s Licensing Standards requires drivers to meet

“…Group 2 medical standards as published by the Dept of Transport.”

Compliance with this standard is a legal requirement, and without a certificate we have no means of knowing whether this requirement is satisfied. This Committee considers that failure to provide an up to date medical or DBS check is a breach of Council policy; the checks are vital to establish that a driver is medically fit enough to drive, and has not received any criminal convictions in the period since their last DBS check. Lacking that information, and mindful of the paramount importance of public safety, we are not satisfied that the driver is a fit and proper person to hold hackney carriage and private hire licences  and therefore revoke them, with immediate effect.

The driver has a right of appeal against this decision to the Magistrates Court, and that any such appeal must be lodged within 21 days. Normally, the revocation would come into effect following the end of the appeal period, but since the revocation is because of failure to supply a medical certificate in the interests of public safety, this period of grace will not apply. She will receive a letter from the Legal Department explaining this.