Issue - meetings

Nathan Howson, Enforcement Team Leader presented the report.

Highlighted at paragraph 7, the statutory standards had been issued which helped inform licensing authorities how to exercise their functions so as to protect children and vulnerable individuals from harm.

Consultation on these Statutory Standards ran 12 February 2019 to 22 April 2019, consideration of responses and guidelines by the Department for Transport were released July 2020.

The standards found in Appendix contained recommendations for taxi and private hire which included;

-       criminality checks for drivers,

-       information sharing with relevant and appropriate authorities and cooperation with the police where necessary

-       complaint handling,

-       safeguarding and awareness,

-       CCTV in licensed vehicles and

-       regulations of booking and dispatch staff.

Members asked if there were any issues that directly related to Chorley.

Nathan explained that there were some instances where the policy of Chorley Council matched the guidance or went further, but there were also instances where a change of policy was required to comply with the guidelines. There would be a process of amending policy and consulting with the trade before proposals were presented to Members for a decision. CCTV was highlighted as the guidance does not mandate the implementation of CCTV but recommended it, there were questions around the legality of mandatory CCTV in vehicles related to the data controller and audio recordings. In order for the council to consider imposing CCTV, Chorley Council would have to demonstrate that it was an appropriate response to a local issue, and then a policy would need to be developed that proportionally responded to the local need or issue.

Members believed that CCTV would be beneficial for both drivers and passengers. It was confirmed that the passenger did not need to be verbally informed of the CCTV, signage was sufficient.

Members asked if Licensing would be a shared service. Nathan informed Members that Chorley and South Ribble had a shared Director overseeing both Licensing departments, but the services themselves were not shared and licensing functions and decisions would not be crossed over between Chorley and South Ribble.

Decision: The Report was noted.