Request ID: FOI-3223-2223 Date published: 31 March 2023
You asked
Dear TFL,
I am submitting this freedom of information request about TFL's
Private Hire licensed drivers.
I would like to obtain the following information:
1. The total number of Private Hire Licensed Drivers currently operating in London.
2. The average number of Private Hire Licensed Drivers that were or have been operating in London each year from 2016 to 2019 and 2022 (5 years in total removing covid pandemic years of 2020 and 2021).
3. As at end of 2022, what is the country of birth of Private Hire Licensed Drivers in percentage terms e.g. 43% of Private Hire Licensed Drivers were born in England UK etc?
4. How many Private Hire Drivers renewed their licenses on average each from 2016 to 2019 and 2022 (5 years in total removing covid pandemic years of 2020 and 2021)?
We answered
Our ref: FOI-3223-2223/GH
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 4 March 2023 asking for information about Private Hire Licenced Drivers in London.
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 some of the information you require.
I would like to obtain the following information:
1. The total number of Private Hire Licensed Drivers currently operating in London. 2. The average number of Private Hire Licensed Drivers that were or have been operating in London each year from 2016 to 2019 and 2022 (5 years in total removing covid pandemic years of 2020 and 2021).
3. As at end of 2022, what is the country of birth of Private Hire Licensed Drivers in percentage terms e.g. 43% of Private Hire Licensed Drivers were born in England UK etc?
We do not hold this information in a way which allows us to report on it. Where someone is born does not have any bearing on whether or not to licence them - we would only look at whether they have to right to live and work in this country. We do hold copies of Private Hire drivers’ passports, which usually state the place of birth, however, to compile this information we would need to check each drivers file, and 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’).
4. How many Private Hire Drivers renewed their licenses on average each from 2016 to 2019 and 2022 (5 years in total removing covid pandemic years of 2020 and 2021)?
We do not hold this information. Our licensing system can only show the number of licences at a given moment in time and the information regarding previous licences is overwritten each time a new licence is issued.
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.
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
