Written question asked by David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party) on Tuesday, 22 November 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 24 November 2005. It was answered by Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour) on Tuesday, 29 November 2005 on behalf of the Northern Ireland Office.

Illegal Taxis

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people in Northern Ireland have been prosecuted for operating an illegal taxi service in each of the last 10 years.

Answer

Unfortunately the requested information is not available prior to April 2003.The following information is however available:

	Number of taxi operators prosecuted
April 2003 to March 2004	336
April 2004 to March 2005	212
April 2005 to November 2005	95

Secondary information