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Trust calls for passenger safety improvements

05 November 2024

NATIONAL PERSONAL Safety Day is an annual event that raises awareness of personal safety issues and recommends ways to reduce violence, aggression, and abuse.

Established by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, which campaigns to reduce risk and prevalence of abuse, aggression, and violence - with a specific focus on stalking and harassment, it is supported by Peoplesafe, personal safety technology experts.

This year it takes place on 5 November and focusses on Steering Towards Safety: a review of passenger safety on the public transport network including the alarming gaps in taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) driver licensing law, allowing individuals with violent convictions to continue obtaining licences. Despite repeated calls to action by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust since 2014 and the introduction of the Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Safeguarding and Road Safety) Act 2022, inconsistencies across licensing authorities persist, putting passengers at risk.

The new government has made it a key promise that it will halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) within a decade. It is vital that perpetrators’ ability to use public transport, including transport such as taxis and PHVs, to commit these crimes is reduced. 

A recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust showed that drivers with convictions, including for violent crimes such as assault, battery and harassment, were still being licensed despite licensing authorities knowing about the offences. A new YouGov and Suzy Lamplugh Trust surveydemonstrates that these concerns are widely shared, with over 30% of respondents feeling unsafe when using these services. Over 70% of respondents stated that the introduction of a legal requirement preventing drivers with a history of aggressive and/or abusive behaviour from obtaining a licence would make them feel safer.

Key Findings:

  • An estimated 90 licences were granted to drivers with convictions for violent offences, and a further 68 were granted to drivers holding various traffic, driving or vehicle related convictions (of the authorities that replied to our FOI)1
  • 34.4% of respondents to our survey stated they did not know the difference between a taxi and a PHV. Public confusion over the difference between taxis and PHVs leads to further safety risks as people can be taken advantage of by non-licensed drivers or drivers acting outside the boundaries of their licence.
  • A significant proportion of the public (30%) reported feeling unsafe during journeys, with 15% of women citing sexual harassment as a concern.

The Trust is therefore continuing to call for immediate government action to introduce national minimum standards in legislation for driver licensing and for the inclusion of drivers as a regulated activity, ensuring stricter background checks, as for teachers and other regulated professions. As not all licencing authorities were able to tell us how many of their currently licenced drivers hold convictions and for which offences, it is hard to know the scale of the problem. But while the proportion of these drivers maybe small overall the Suzy Lamplugh Trust believes that legal loopholes should be closed to prevent any driver who poses a risk to passengers being able to obtain a licence. To further close those loopholes, licensing authorities should be given powers to enforce national standards for all licence holders operating in their authority, and not be restricted to those licensed by their own authority. 

Additionally, taxis and PHVs form part of a larger ecosystem of public transport being used every day across the UK. It is necessary to understand the call for stricter licensing requirements for taxi and PHV drivers as part of a wider campaign to draw attention to and combat the rise of VAWG occurring across public transport.  We believe that employers should take into account employee safety as they travel on public transport or via taxi/PHV for work related purposes, particularly if they are working alone. As such, it is imperative that employers publish their personal safety policies and ensure they have safety procedures such as tracing systems and lone worker devices that enable them to know the whereabouts and safety of employees at all times while working or travelling for work.

Recommendations:

To Government:

  1. National minimum standards for licensing taxis and PHV drivers to be introduced in law.
  2. Clear policy to outline which crimes and behaviours should result in licence revocation and refusal.
  3. Inclusion of taxi and PHV drivers as a regulated activity to enable certain drivers to be barred from the profession.
  4. Licensing officer enforcement powers for checks on all drivers including those not licensed by their own authority

To Licensing Authorities:

  1. Implement government statutory guidance and adopt the Institute of Licensing Suitability Guidance

To Employers:

  1. Employers should establish a personal safety culture in their workplace to eliminate harmful and illegal behaviours, including addressing employees’ safety whilst travelling for work as part of their published workplace safety policies.

Emma Lingley-Clark, interim CEO of Suzy Lamplugh Trust stated, “These findings show that passengers are being put at risk due to inconsistent implementation of government guidance on safe licensing. It is vital therefore that the government introduce national standards in law to mandate the prevention of drivers with a violent history from being allowed to operate. This should be done in line with a wider push to tackle violence against women and girls across the public transport network in the UK.”

Reference
1 Relating to an estimated 368 licences issued to drivers with convictions across 28 local authorities

 
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