Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Jim McMahon (Labour) on Thursday, 13 November 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 17 November 2025. It was answered by Lilian Greenwood (Labour) on Friday, 21 November 2025 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Taxis: Convictions

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate she has made of the number of licensed private hire drivers with criminal convictions for (a) sexual and (b) violence against the person in offences in England.

Answer

All licensing authorities in England have a duty to ensure that any person to whom they grant a taxi or private hire vehicle driver’s licence is a fit and proper person to be a licensee and that they remain so throughout the duration of the licence. As part of this assessment all licensing authorities have reported that they undertake an enhanced disclosure and barring service (DBS) check and check both the children’s and adults’ barred lists.

Licensing authorities make decisions based on “the balance of probability”, so when determining whether a driver remains fit and proper to hold a licence, a driver should not be given the benefit of the doubt. If a licensing authority is only fifty percent certain as to whether a licensee is fit and proper, they should not hold a licence. The threshold used here is lower than for a criminal conviction (that being beyond reasonable doubt). This means that driver licences may be revoked even if any safety concerns do not result in a criminal conviction.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
90786
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Convictions Offences against children Taxis Sexual offences
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk