Request ID: FOI-0103-2223 Date published: 17 May 2022
You asked
I would like to make a request for information in relation to private hire complaints and licence investigations.
1. Please can you let me know how many complaints you have received per year from licence operators or directly from members of public since 2010?
I am looking for this to be itemised for each year and if possible to be broken down into individual operators such as Uber, Bolt etc
2. Please can you let me know how many individual drivers ‘fitness to practice’ investigations you have taken out each year since 2010?
3. Please can you inform me how many of the individual drivers ‘fitness to practice’ investigations have resulted in a driver losing their licence per year since 2010?
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-0103-2223
Thank you for your request received on 19 April 2022 asking for information about private hire complaints and licence investigations.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require.
Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.
We have estimated that it would cost over £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take in excess of 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.
You asked:
1. Please can you let me know how many complaints you have received per year from licence operators or directly from members of public since 2010?
I am looking for this to be itemised for each year and if possible to be broken down into individual operators such as Uber, Bolt etc
We receive complaints from customers regarding taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) services via our Customer Experience team. However, the majority of PHV-related complaints will be made directly to a PHV operator who the journey was booked through. These are largely dealt with directly by the operator, however this may involve the submission of a PHV/105 form to notify TFL of any concerns.
We may be able to provide you with the number of PHV/105 forms we have received, however we may not be able to break this down by operator. Please could you confirm whether this is the information you require. Please note that we do not hold recorded data prior to 25 March 2019 for the total volume of forms received, so we would not be able to provide annual totals dating back to 2010.
2. Please can you let me know how many individual drivers ‘fitness to practice’ investigations you have taken out each year since 2010? 3. Please can you inform me how many of the individual drivers ‘fitness to practice’ investigations have resulted in a driver losing their licence per year since 2010?
We do not undertake "fitness to practice investigations." However, we may undertake a fitness review as a result of an issue raised in a PHV/105 form. In order to provide this information we would need to review individual driver records. There are currently over 120,000 of these files. In order to provide the information for Q3 of your request we would need to also review the records of drivers who are no longer licensed.
To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. If you want to refine your request or make a Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by us.
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request.
Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.
In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
