Our Ref:         FOI-3024-1920

Thank you for your request received on 9 January 2020 asking for information about Taxi Private Hire driver testing.

Your request has been processed in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.

You asked for:

A list of all incidents of impersonation/cheating that took place during PCO driver testing in 2019.

I am seeking the number of such instances there were, a brief description of what happened in each case, the location of the incident, and the result of it.

We do not carry out “PCO driver testing”.  We have interpreted this request to relate to a BBC news report, in November 2019, that focussed on allegations that a specific London college – Vista Training Solutions – was illegally providing BTEC certificates which were being fraudulently used by a number of private hire vehicle (PHV) drivers and licence applicants to satisfy TfL that they have appropriate topographical knowledge and skills.

We issued Notice 06/19 which clearly sets out our position on this issue and the actions we have taken. The notice can be found here: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/06-19-topographical-skills-assessments.pdf.

Should any further issues arise TfL will take appropriate licensing action.

We continue to support Ofqual and the relevant exam boards, who are responsible for investigating this type of fraud and if further evidence is provided we will take tough licensing action.
 
To eliminate the risk of fraudulent topographical certificates being used as a way to avoid PHV assessments we have now removed this exemption.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, 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

[email protected]