TfL Ref: 2189-1819

Thank you for your email received by us on 19 November 2018 asking for information about how many taxi drivers have 12 or more points on their driving licence but retain entitlement to drive following your previous request for information (reference:1808-1819).

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 do hold the information you require. You asked:

How many taxi drivers have 12 or more points on their driving licence but retain entitlement to drive

Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested would still 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.

As mentioned in our previous response (1808-1819), we would still have to manually check approximately 23,485 individual taxi driver records to identify, extract and collate this information, which is not held in a reportable format. Consequently, we have estimated that the time needed for manually checking this data would considerably exceed the set limit.

We would also like to reiterate that to ensure the safety of the travelling public, taxi and private hire drivers must meet a range of strict criteria to ensure they are of good character. This is assessed on the basis of an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check submitted as part of a licence application, information provided by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and any other information that comes to our attention.

Licensed drivers are obliged to notify us within 21 days if they have been disqualified from driving or have been cautioned, charged, or convicted of any criminal offence - including any road traffic offences. This requirement is clearly stated in the letter that accompanies all driver licences”.

Regarding driving disqualification, our internal licensing guidance states that: “A driver cannot hold a taxi or private driver’s licence without a DVLA driving licence, therefore disqualification from driving automatically results in revocation of the licence.

“In normal circumstances any driver accumulating 12 penalty points on their driving licence in a three year period will be disqualified from driving for a minimum of six months. However, the courts have the discretion not to disqualify in exceptional hardship. Where this discretion is exercised and the driver has not been convicted of more than one major offence TfL will not revoke the driver’s licence but will issue a written warning highlighting the risk of revocation should the driver receive further penalty points and is subsequently disqualified.”

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 as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

Yours sincerely

Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
Information Governance
Transport For London