Spring 2012 Newsletter - Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council

National taxi reform updateThe Transport Select Committee published its longawaited report on the 19 July 2011 calling for taxi andprivate hire legislative reform entitled ‘Taxis and privatehire vehicles: the road to reform’.The report highlighted the ‘…rules for taxis date back to 1847 and still referto horse-drawn carriages. The rules for PHVs were set down in 1976 andare now out-of-date due to the growth of mobile phones and the internet.The age of this legislation and the complexity of case law accumulated inthis area make the need to overhaul the law on these matters irresistible.’The report called upon the Government to set out its policy proposalsbefore the end of 2011, with a view to holding a consultation exercise in2012, introducing draft legislation in 2013-14 and taking an act or legislativereform order through Parliament before the next general election.The committee recommended that the following principles should underpinnew legislation. These are to listen to the views of users, keep it simple,keep it local, permit tighter restrictions on cross border hire, increase thepotential for local authorities to work together to create larger licensingdistricts and develop national licensing standards on certain issues whichrelate to public safety.At the same time, the law commissionalso published their report on taxi andprivate hire reform. It said that they aimto publish proposals for law reform inApril 2012 to be followed by a threemonth consultation period where thepublic be invited to respond to proposalswith the aim to publish a final report withrecommendations and draft bill by late2013.We support the need for legislative reformregarding the regulatory frameworkcontrolling the licensing of taxis andprivate hire. We will provide furtherupdates about this in due course.16 Taxi and Private Hire News