Campaigner Sammy welcomes Government’s taxi licensing plans ‘after years of neglecting people’s safety’

All taxis across the country could soon be made to install CCTV and audio recording — a scheme which was enforced in Rotherham three years ago following the child abuse scandal.

Prof Alexis Jay said in her report on child sex abuse in 2014 that taxi drivers had been involved in transporting and abusing young CSE victims.

Sammy has been part of a Government Task and Finish Group which has made a series of recommendations to reform the sector and protect vulnerable people.

“I’ve been working on this since about 2014 to 2015,” said Sammy.

“It’s so important because the Government for so long has neglected people’s safety.

“These recommendations will reduce a lot of crime or when crime does happen there will be evidence there to take it to court. It also gives drivers more protection, too."

The proposed guidelines aim to introduce enhanced safety standards for taxi and private hire vehicles and ensure every driver undergoes enhanced criminal record and background checks.

The Government has also pledged to legislate on national minimum standards for drivers, establish a national licensing database and look at restricting drivers operating hundreds of miles away from where they are licensed.

Drivers will also be required to undertake safeguarding and CSE awareness training and must be able to to communicate in English orally and in writing “to a standard that is required to fulfil their duties”.

The ten-week public consultation will close on April 22 and the results will be published within three months of the consultation closing.

Parliamentary under-secretary of state for transport, Nusrat Ghani, said: “While the vast majority of drivers are safe and act responsibly, we have seen too many cases where taxi and minicab drivers have used their job to prey on vulnerable people, women and children.

“These rules would make sure that drivers are fit to carry passengers, keeping people safe while stopping those with bad intentions from getting behind the wheel of a taxi or minicab.”

The MP said in her report: “The excellent work undertaken in Rotherham following the identification of its past failings evidences what can be achieved with the powers licensing authorities currently have.”

Ms Ghani added: “Some of the recommendations proposed in the guidance would impose additional burdens on the trade. While I would sooner that such measures were not needed, the lessons from the Casey and Jay reports and the impact on the lives of those affected by these failures must not — and will not — be forgotten. To do otherwise would compound the harm and injustice done.

“I hope that all authorities will adopt the department’s recommendations and bring about high common standards, and increased sharing of information and enforcement powers.”

Rotherham MP Sarah Champion welcomed the introduction of national minimum standards, but said they were “long overdue”.

She added: “The Deregulation Act 2015 has undermined licensing authorities by greatly increasing the ability of drivers to seek licenses from authorities with lower standards. I raised this repeatedly with the Government at the time, but was rebuffed. National minimum standards will go some way to alleviating this problem and provide much-needed reassurance on public safety.”

To read the full report and 30 recommendations, visit https://bit.ly/2zcBpj1.

And to submit your views to the consultation visit https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/taxis-licence/.