Taxi and private hire drivers to face enhanced checks

All taxi and private hire drivers could have to pass enhanced criminal record checks under government proposals.

The Department for Transport has launched a consultation on new licensing guidelines to better protect vulnerable passengers.

Last year a government report found that the laws regulating drivers were not “fit for the modern world”.

The consultation will also consider whether cabs and private hire vehicles should be fitted with CCTV.

Any video recording systems would be encrypted so that footage could only be accessed if a crime was reported.

The government also said it would introduce national minimum standards for drivers.

This would include establishing a national licensing database and potentially stopping drivers from operating hundreds of miles away from where they were licensed.

• Why is my taxi from another city?

Under the current system, someone who is denied a taxi licence by a local authority in England and Wales can travel to another area where the licensing authority may be more lenient.

The consultation will run until 22 April.

Taxis minister Nusrat Ghani said: “While the vast majority of drivers are safe and act responsibly, we have seen too many cases where taxi and minicab drivers have used their job to prey on vulnerable people, women and children.

“These rules would make sure that drivers are fit to carry passengers, keeping people safe while stopping those with bad intentions from getting behind the wheel of a taxi or minicab.”

• Taxi driver loses licence after guide dog refusal

The proposals follow the case of “black cab rapist” John Worboys, who police believe may have carried out more than 100 rapes and sexual assaults on women he picked up in his cab in London between 2002 and 2008.

He was jailed in 2009 for 19 offences including rape, sexual assault and drugging his victims and his case made headlines after the High Court overturned the decision of the Parole Board to release him after 10 years of his sentence.

Last year it emerged that taxi licences were being issued behind closed doors to drivers convicted of offences including child sex crimes and reckless driving.

At the moment a licensing authority, such as a council, has to decide if someone is “fit and proper” before granting a taxi or private hire licence.

Although some guidance has been published, there are no legal rules on how to determine whether someone is “fit and proper person”.

The DfT said new guidelines would be consistent across the country.

Please share your thoughts on the proposed criminal record checks. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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