FI15042

Request

Since the 1st of August 2022:

  1. The number of new and renewed taxi (Hackney Carriage) driver licenses you have granted.
  2. The number of new and renewed Private Hire Vehicle (PHV) driver licenses you have granted.
  3. The number of taxi licences granted to drivers with criminal convictions.
  4. The number of PHV licenses granted to drivers with criminal convictions.
  5. In the cases of those with convictions in relation to Question 3 and Question 4:
    1. The nature and date of conviction.
    2. Whether said driver’s conviction was known at the time of the licence being approved.
    3. In each case, the current licence status of the driver.
  6. The criteria/policy that is applied when deciding on an application from a driver with a current/spent conviction.
  7. How many times have you checked the national database on driver revocations/refusals?
  8. How many have had licenses removed due to that?

Response

  1. 209 (Dover District Council issues joint Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Driver Licences)
  2. 209 (Dover District Council issues joint Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Driver Licences)
  3. I can confirm that the Council holds information falling within the description specified in your request, however it is not readily available and from our preliminary assessment, we have estimated that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’.   The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for Local Government it is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2½ working days in determining whether the information is held, locating, retrieving and extracting the data.  As a manual check of each individual driver application file would need to be undertaken, we have undertaken an initial assessment and have determined that it would take approximately 15 minutes to check each file for the information being requested.  I regret therefore, that on this occasion I must refuse this part your request in accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act.
  4. I can confirm that the Council holds information falling within the description specified in your request, however it is not readily available and from our preliminary assessment, we have estimated that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’.   The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for Local Government it is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2½ working days in determining whether the information is held, locating, retrieving and extracting the data. As a manual check of each individual driver application file would need to be undertaken, we have undertaken an initial assessment and have determined that it would take approximately 15 minutes to check each file for the information being requested.  I regret therefore, that on this occasion I must refuse this part your request in accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act.
  5. I can confirm that the Council holds information falling within the description specified in your request, however it is not readily available and from our preliminary assessment, we have estimated that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’.   The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for Local Government it is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2½ working days in determining whether the information is held, locating, retrieving and extracting the data.  As a manual check of each individual driver application file would need to be undertaken, we have undertaken an initial assessment and have determined that it would take approximately 15 minutes to check each file for the information being requested.  I regret therefore, that on this occasion I must refuse this part your request in accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act.
  6. This information is available on the Council’s website at https://www.dover.gov.uk/Business/Licensing/Taxis/PDF/HCPH-Policy-2022-27-Published-document-Aug.pdf.
  7. Each driver is checked before a new licence or renewal of existing licence is granted.
  8. Zero