Taxi licensing
Case reference FOI2026/00855
Received 20 April 2026
Published 19 May 2026
Request
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information for the period 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2025.
1. Licensed drivers
The total number of licensed:
Taxi (hackney carriage) drivers
Private hire drivers.
2. Applications and licensing decisions
The number of driver licence applications:
* Received
* Granted
* Refused
3. Suspensions and revocations
The number of driver licences:
* Suspended
* Revoked
Where recorded, please indicate how many were related to:
* Sexual offences
* Violent offences
4. Safeguarding and adverse information decisions
For the purposes of this request, “adverse information” includes: criminal convictions, police intelligence, safeguarding referrals and any other information considered relevant to the “fit and proper person” assessment
Please provide the number of cases where a taxi or private hire driver licence was granted, or renewed, where adverse information was known to the authority at the time of the decision.
Where possible, please also indicate:
How many of these cases involved sexual or violent offences (convicted or otherwise, where recorded)
If exact categorisation is not held, please provide any internal category used to record such decisions.
5. Background checks and safeguarding systems
Please confirm:
a) Whether your authority uses the NR3 register when assessing applicants (Yes/No)
b) Whether your authority subscribes to the DBS Update Service for ongoing monitoring (Yes/No)
c) How frequently enhanced DBS checks are required for licensed drivers:
* At application only
* At renewal
* Other (please specify)
6. Private hire operators (including app-based services)
The number of licensed private hire operators under your authority, including app-based booking platforms such as Uber, Bolt or similar services where licensed locally.
Where available, please provide:
* Number of operator licences granted
* Refused
* Suspended or revoked
* Any enforcement action taken against operators
Response
We have considered your request for information. Please see answers to your questions below:
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information for the period 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2025.
1. Licensed drivers
The total number of licensed:
Taxi (hackney carriage) drivers
Private hire drivers.
2. Applications and licensing decisions
The number of driver licence applications:
* Received
* Granted
* Refused
3. Suspensions and revocations
The number of driver licences:
* Suspended
* Revoked
Where recorded, please indicate how many were related to:
* Sexual offences
* Violent offences
Questions 1 to 3:
The legislation covering hackney carriage and private hire vehicles, the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 and the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, require a local authority to maintain a “register” or “book” containing a list of current licensed hackney carriage and private hire vehicle drivers.
In accordance with the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 all licensing decisions including the grant, suspension or revocation of Licensed drivers can be found on the public portal available following the link below.
The Council’s public register can be accessed here:
https://mylicencegbc.guildford.gov.uk/registers/index.html?fa=licence_register
In addition, a report is presented annually to the Council’s Licensing Committee detailing the number of applications and licence suspensions and revocations, in addition to other relevant information about taxi and private hire activity. This report can be found on the Licensing Committee minutes pages on the Council’s website.
As such, the information you require can be found from publicly available sources and consequentially under Section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible.
4. Safeguarding and adverse information decisions
For the purposes of this request, “adverse information” includes: criminal convictions, police intelligence, safeguarding referrals and any other information considered relevant to the “fit and proper person” assessment
Please provide the number of cases where a taxi or private hire driver licence was granted, or renewed, where adverse information was known to the authority at the time of the decision.
Where possible, please also indicate:
How many of these cases involved sexual or violent offences (convicted or otherwise, where recorded)
If exact categorisation is not held, please provide any internal category used to record such decisions.
Question 4
The Council has 709 licensed taxi and private hire drivers currently and in order to comply with your request, as to whether the Council was aware of ‘adverse information’, a considerable amount of manual collation would be required to:
1. Review all 709 driver records and extract records
2. Collate information which may be considered relevant, such as complaints received and any conviction or other information.
3. Review records to identify in each case whether this related to a violent or sexual offence and list the information in the format you require.
Due to the number of records involved, we estimate that this exercise would exceed 18 hours. As an estimate, it would take approximately 15 minutes to obtain, review and collate each driver's record. With 709 drivers, this would require over 177 hours of work.
‘Adverse information’ has a wide context in taxi licensing, and can include complaints and other information received, such as ‘minor’ traffic or parking related complaints to more serious offences involving violence. Details of complaints received about drivers are also set out in the annual report mentioned above and with the Council receiving approximately 200 complaints per year it is not possible to collate this data in the time available
I would however set out that any decision to grant, renew, suspend or revoke a licence will me made according to the Council’s adopted Taxi and Private Hire Licensing Policy, which is publicly available on our website at: www.guildford.gov.uk/taxi and every decision will have regard to any information available to the council, including the result of any DBS certificate, DVLA endorsements and the drivers record in respect of complaints received.
As such, for Question 4 please consider this email our notice of refusal as required by Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act for this element of your request.
5. Background checks and safeguarding systems
Please confirm:
a) Whether your authority uses the NR3 register when assessing applicants (Yes/No)
b) Whether your authority subscribes to the DBS Update Service for ongoing monitoring (Yes/No)
c) How frequently enhanced DBS checks are required for licensed drivers:
* At application only
* At renewal
* Other (please specify)
Question 5:
Answers to this question are as follows:
a) Yes
b) Yes
c) Other – every 6 months
6. Private hire operators (including app-based services)
The number of licensed private hire operators under your authority, including app-based booking platforms such as Uber, Bolt or similar services where licensed locally.
Where available, please provide:
* Number of operator licences granted
* Refused
* Suspended or revoked
* Any enforcement action taken against operators
Question 6
Please see public register and annual report information for Private Hire Operators, available via the following link: https://mylicencegbc.guildford.gov.uk/registers/index.html?fa=licence_register
Yours sincerely,
FOI Team
Guildford Borough Council
Documents
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