Dear Transport for London, By the following years 2016 2017 2018 2019 Please inform me by year, how many taxi drivers surrendered or had their licence revoked (ill health etc), ie total number of drivers that no longer hold a licence.

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TfL Ref: FOI-3032-1920

Thank you for your email received on 9 January asking for information about taxi driver licences.

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 the information you require. In your request, you asked for:

2016

2017

2018

2019

Please inform me by year, how many taxi drivers surrendered or had their licence revoked (ill health etc), ie total number of drivers that no longer hold a licence.

The following table details the number of taxi drivers who no longer hold a licence for each year requested.

Taxi driver	2016	2017	2018	2019
Licences surrendered	0	26	115	293
Licences revoked	127	218	149	173
Licence Expired	190	587	755	644

These figures are not an accurate representation of drivers who have decided to no longer be licensed as a taxi driver. Licences can be recorded as being surrendered for a number of reasons, including when a driver temporarily surrenders their licence for personal reasons, such as when they need to surrender their licence in order to prove their medical fitness, or if they no longer decide they wish to be a licensed taxi driver. Therefore, in some circumstances, a surrendered licence may be subsequently returned to the driver when it is deemed appropriate to do so.

Additionally, some drivers may surrender their licence, allow them to expire or lose it following licensing action being taken, but then re-apply as a new driver in the future. In those circumstances, a new licence would be issued.

As you can see from the table of licensed taxi drivers per annum below, the number has remained broadly consistent over the past eight years.

	All London	Suburban	Total
2010/2011	21,499	3,571	25,070
2011/2012	21,690	3,646	25,336
2012/2013	21,733	3,727	25,460
2013/2014	21,876	3,662	25,538
2014/2015	21,724	3,508	25,232
2015/2016	21,500	3,370	24,870
2016/2017	21,274	3,213	24,487
2016/2017	20,803	3,023	23,826

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.

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.

Yours sincerely

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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