Issue - meetings

Report of the Licensing Enforcement Officer

The Committee gave consideration to the report (at pages 9 - 11) as delivered and summarised by the Head of Law & Governance / Monitoring Officer which should be read together with these minutes as a composite document.

The Committee raised concerns regarding the capacity of the Licensing Section in view of the increasing high number of applications being received and relatively low pass rates of those applicants sitting the competency test. The Committee was advised that a number of workflow initiatives had since been put in place and a request had been made to recruit an apprentice in order to better manage and expedite existing workloads. It was also said that current testing processes were designed to filter out the very best calibre of candidates to go to be licenced drivers.

The Committee was advised that the introduction of a saturation policy in terms of limiting the number of hackney carriage (HC) vehicles would be difficult to implement given the robust evidence-base needed to withstand potential challenge. It was also advised that it would be difficult to justify the implementation of a policy requiring all HC vehicles to be complaint with the Equality Act 2010 for passenger accessibility as this would involve a considerable amount of expenditure that would yield only a relatively small benefit. The suitability of particular vehicle types could be considered.

By affirmation of the meeting, it was

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED THAT:

That contents of the report be noted by Members.