TfL Ref: FOI-2342-1617

Thank you for your email received by us on 23 February 2017 asking for information about private hire operator licence renewal applications. Please accept my apologies for the delay in replying to you.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our Information Access Policy. I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. You asked for:

“Any and all statistical information (and related documentation) from the past 6 months specifying the number of licensed private hire operators who having satisfied all licence renewal conditions were not issued with a new private hire operator licence before the date of their licence expiry. Within the above request, particular information sought are the reasons for the delay in the continuation from the end of the initial private hire operator licence term to the start of the renewed private hire operator licence term."

We do not hold statistical information on the reason(s) why a delay has occurred, however, our records show that 115 operator licences were renewed after the expiry of the previous licence within the requested period.

We have carried out a manual check on 25 of the aforementioned licences and the following reasons were identified:

• Late submission of application forms (forms are issued four months in advance of licence expiry with a recommendation that the completed form should be submitted at least 90 days before the expiry date)
• fee payment issues
• incomplete applications
• delayed responses to licensing enquiries
• processing errors.

If this is not the information you are looking for, 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

Paulina Tuffour
FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London