Response 3996189
Response to request for information
Reference
3996189
Response date
22 April 2026
Request
I would like to request the following information for the period 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2025.
- Licensed drivers
- The total number of licensed:
- Taxi (hackney carriage) drivers
- Private hire drivers.
- Applications and licensing decisions. The number of driver licence applications:
- Received
- Granted
- Refused
- Suspensions and revocations
- The number of driver licences:
- Suspended
- Revoked
- Where recorded, please indicate how many were related to:
- Sexual offences
- Violent offences
- Safeguarding and adverse information decisions
For the purposes of this request, “adverse information” includes: criminal convictions, police intelligence, safeguarding referrals and any other information considered relevant to the “fit and proper person” assessment
Please provide the number of cases where a taxi or private hire driver licence was granted, or renewed, where adverse information was known to the authority at the time of the decision.
Where possible, please also indicate:
How many of these cases involved sexual or violent offences (convicted or otherwise, where recorded)
If exact categorisation is not held, please provide any internal category used to record such decisions.
- Background checks and safeguarding systems
Please confirm:
- Whether your authority uses the NR3 register when assessing applicants (Yes/No)
- Whether your authority subscribes to the DBS Update Service for ongoing monitoring (Yes/No)
- How frequently enhanced DBS checks are required for licensed drivers:
- At application only
- At renewal
- Other (please specify)
- Private hire operators (including app-based services)
The number of licensed private hire operators under your authority, including app-based booking platforms such as Uber, Bolt or similar services where licensed locally.
Where available, please provide:
- Number of operator licences granted
- Refused
- Suspended or revoked
- Any enforcement action taken against operators
Response
- Licensed drivers
- Please see responses in the spreadsheet for this request
There are 623 unique drivers from 1 Jan 2023 till current.
- Applications and licensing decisions. The number of driver licence applications:
- Please see link to spreadsheet in response to question 1.
- Suspensions and revocations
- Please see link to spreadsheet in response to question 1.
Where recorded, please indicate how many were related to:
- Sexual offences
- Violent offences
- Response - none
- Safeguarding and adverse information decisions
This would require a review of each and every application to determine if there was any such information. This is not recorded as a searchable field and as such would take excessively long time to do. For example at 10-15 minutes per application, there are 956 applications to review documentation on. This would take 150+ hours to review and determine.
The right of access to information is modified by a number of provisions including section 12(1) of the FOIA which provides: 12. — (1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit for local authorities has been set at £450 (equivalent to 18 hours of officer time charged at a flat rate of £25 per hour) by The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulation 2004 SI 2004 No 3244.
- Background checks and safeguarding systems
Please confirm
- Whether your authority uses the NR3 register when assessing applicants (Yes)
- Whether your authority subscribes to the DBS Update Service for ongoing monitoring (Yes)
- How frequently enhanced DBS checks are required for licensed drivers:
- At application only (Yes)
- At renewal (Yes)
- Other (please specify)
- Private hire operators (including app-based services)
Please see link to spreadsheet in response to question 1.