The Local Government Association (LGA) has welcomed the Home Office announcement that councils will not be prevented from requesting enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks when licensing drivers of taxis and minicabs.
Licensing officials have been allowed to carry out enhanced CRB checks on potential drivers for the past 10 years. But the government had looked at scrapping the practice, prompting lobbying by the Local Government Association and Transport for London – and now these plans have been dropped.
Mehboob Khan, chair of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said that the top priority for councils was always to keep residents safe, and he had been concerned about the Government’s plan to stop enhanced CRB checks for taxi and private hire drivers.
“Anyone getting into a taxi or private hire vehicle should be able to do so safe in the knowledge that they can rely on their council having fully checked the background of the driver before giving them a licence,” Khan said.
He added: “It is a very positive move that councils will also have additional powers to check whether any applicant is barred from working with children or vulnerable adults.” The enhanced checks allow the CRB to disclose information on an individual, in addition to convictions, which they think may be relevant to the job they’re applying for.
Preston Council’s licensing manager Mike Thorpe said the enhanced checks had allowed him to refuse taxi licenses to people with police histories which “worry the council”. Thorpe said, in recent years, Preston Council had refused a licence to a man acquitted of male rape and another to a man accused of having relations with a minor before the case was discontinued by the courts.
He said: “Preston has used this to stop people who have no convictions but where there’s been enough evidence to worry the council. Without being able to rely on this additional information, we’d have people like this driving round. Our role is to make sure these vehicles and these drivers are safe for the public and to give that assurance, when people’s daughters are out and coming home on their own, they can trust council vehicles and drivers. By not having all the information at our disposal to make the right decision, then risks are high.”
Mark Bursa
