Agenda and minutes

There were no Declarations of Interest to report.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting held on 24^th September, 2018.

Further to Minute No. 2(1) it was noted that the fees and charges had again been set for 2019/20 and there were no amendments to include the introduction of a fee to insurance companies and third parties requesting data downloads from the camera hard drives located in licensing hackney carriages and private hire vehicles.

With regards to Minute No. 4(i) it was confirmed that the window stickers to be displayed in licensed vehicles were currently being printed and would be issued shortly.

Resolved:-  That the minutes be received and the contents noted.

Consideration was given to the report, presented by the Licensing Manager, which provided detailed performance in relation to the Licensing Team’s performance against the Taxi and Private Hire Licensing Performance Framework for the 2018/19 financial year.

In addition, an overview of the key activities and actions undertaken by the Licensing Team during 2018/19 were also included.

The Licensing Board’s views on the proposed priorities for the current year were welcomed.

The Licensing Manager guided the Licensing Board through the detail in the report and provided further information on the areas of:-

·                Enforcement actions and other activity undertaken by the Licensing Service.

·                Corporate Performance Measures.

·                Licensing Performance Framework.

·                Enforcement actions undertaken by the Licensing Service (including the current position in relation to Court appeals).

·                Key initiatives and project work within the Licensing Service.

·                Proposed priorities for the Licensing Service in 2019/20.

·                Operational priorities – Taxi and Private Hire.

·                Enforcement work – options and recommended proposal.

The submitted report also provided details in the appendices of the performance against the Licensing Performance Management Framework for the year end and Enforcement Data for 2018/19.

In their consideration of the report Members noted that the majority of the reasons where a driver was found to be non-complaint were them not wearing their I.D. badge (despite the badge being present in the vehicle).  The advantages and disadvantages of an I.D. badge being worn by a driver or on display for passengers to see were discussed and it was considered very timely that as part of the review of the current policy this element be captured.

Whilst it was noted that information sharing was generally efficient and effective on a multi-agency basis, there were still some gaps when the Police arrested a licensed driver and the Licensing Service were not informed.  It was acknowledged that there were some common law disclosures, however, at a local level it would aid the Service’s application of the Policy if information was shared.  The Licensing Manager agreed to seek an early meeting with relevant Police Officers to ascertain how this issue could be addressed and would stress the importance of local information sharing of licensed drivers in a timely manner, enabling necessary investigation work to begin at the earliest opportunity. 

Following on from the shared Licensing Committee training organised earlier in the year, it was suggested that further shared training opportunities with the Police would assist with outlining specific shared service objectives.

The Board was also advised, in response to a concern about the percentage of complaints not being responded to in the required timescale being down to the absence of an enforcement officer, had since been addressed as a result of a generic inbox/email for the service.

In their consideration specifically of the detail set out in Appendix 1 for the year-end performance, the Board expressed some concern about the delays in distributing documentation for Licensing meetings, the delivery of information to drivers in a timely manner and frustrations for the Licensing Board when case hearings were cancelled by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.