Request ID: FOI-1213-2122 Date published: 01 October 2021
You asked
Under freedom of information act please provide me following information: 1st, from 1st July 2020 to 1st July 2021 how many private hire driver has renewed their PRIVATE HIRE LICENCE out of time ( means after expiry of three months) 2nd how many private hire drivers allowed to get their licence without topographical assessment and proof of English test for the 2nd time.
We answered
Our ref: FOI-1213-2122/GH Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 8 September 2021 asking for information about private hire driver licences. Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold the information you require. From 1st July 2020 to 1st July 2021 how many private hire driver has renewed their PRIVATE HIRE LICENCE out of time (means after expiry of three months) Anyone who has a driver licence that has expired for more than 3 months has to apply as a new applicant. In exceptional circumstances, where there is extenuating circumstances discretion may be applied, however, our system does not allow us to readily report on this. Therefore, in order to identify any incidences where discretion was applied, we would need to manually check all renewed private hire driver licences. This 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 requests 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. In this instance, we estimate that the time required to answer your request would exceed 18 hours which, at £25 per hour (the rate stipulated by the Regulations), exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’. How many private hire drivers allowed to get their licence without topographical assessment and proof of English test for the 2nd time. Applicants will not be licensed unless they have completed a topographical assessment.Please note that an exemption previously given to applicants with a relevant vocational qualification was removed in February 2020. Please see TPH Notice 06-19for more information. The English Language Requirement for private hire driver applicants is set out here: https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/taxis-and-private-hire/english-language-requirement. Please note these arrangements will change on 1 October 2021 and further information on this will be published nearer the time. If this is not the information you are looking for, or you are unable to access it for some reason, please do not hesitate to contact me. If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal. Yours sincerely Graham Hurt FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
