Agenda item

To provide the Committee with data on the number of licences, certificates and permits authorised by the Council in quarter 1 2023/24. 

To provide the Committee with details of licensing policies that are in place or are proposed with intended development/review time frames.

The Committee had a report before it that sought to provide data on the number of licences, certificates and permits that had been authorised by the Council in quarter 1 2023/24. The majority of those had been authorised by Officers in accordance with approved schemes of delegation. Data was provided to the Committee on the most recent completed quarters (April to June, July to September, October to December and January to March) together with previous quarters to help aid comparison between quarters and years.

Members were given details of the number of licences, certificates, and permits within the responsibility of Democratic Services and Elections that had been granted as set out under the separate headings below:

(i)             Licensing Act 2003 - Premises Licences/Club Premises Certificates

The total of Premises Licences / Club Premises Certificates that had been approved under Delegated Powers during the period as detailed below.  For comparison, the following also showed the numbers approved for the periods shown:

(ii)            Personal Licences under the Licensing Act 2003

The total of Personal Licences approved under Delegated Powers since 7 February 2005, the 'First Appointed Day' on the dates shown were:-

(iii)           Gambling Act 2005 - Gambling Licences/Permits

Below was a table showing the number of gambling licences and permits that were licensed with this Authority on the dates shown.

(iv)           Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 -
Hackney Carriage/Private Hire Licence

Below was a table showing the number of drivers, vehicles and operators that were licensed with this Authority on the dates shown.

Although the numbers of driver applications processed was broadly the same now as had been the case over the last year, there had been a drop in the number of existing licenced drivers renewing (and a comparative increase in new individuals becoming licensed).

Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Statistics, England 2023

The Department for Transport had published on 11 July 2023 National statistics for taxis and private hire throughout England. Data for 2023 represented the position as at 01 April 2023. Figures were updated every year through surveying each Licensing Authority in England.

Trends since 2005

Chart 1 was a line chart that showed how the number of licensed vehicles and drivers had changed over time. Between 2005 and 2020, the total number of licensed vehicles had increased from 184,500 in 2005 to 298,600 in 2020. This figure then fell sharply to 251,100 in 2021, before increasing again to 289,400 in 2023.

Chart 1 showed that there were 346,300 driver licences in 2023, an increase of 4.9% compared to the previous year. Between 2005 and 2020 the number of driver licence had increased from 242,100 to 364,700. It then fell to 330,000 in 2022 before increasing again in 2023.

Licence lengths for vehicles were generally shorter than those for drivers. This was likely to explain the slightly different trends seen in vehicle and driver licences over the course of the pandemic.

Chart 1

Long term taxi trends

Chart 2 was a line chart that showed that between 1972 and 2015 the numbers of licensed taxis in London, and in England and Wales outside of London, had both broadly followed an increasing trend, albeit at different rates. Since 2015 the numbers had fallen, with a particularly sharp fall seen since 2020, which was likely to be at least in part due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of taxis in 2023 was substantially higher than in 1972: the numbers of licensed taxis had almost quadrupled in England and Wales outside of London (increasing from 12,400 to 46,400), while over the same period the numbers in London had increased by 45% (from 10,100 to 15,100). Prior to 2005 the only data available related to the number of licensed taxis and licensed taxi drivers for England and Wales as a whole. Other than for London, data at a lower geographical level was not available.

Chart 2

As at 1 April 2023:

·       there were 57,200 licensed taxis, a 1.3% decrease from 2022

·       licensed taxis in London increased by 3.4%

·       taxis in England outside of London fell by 2.9%

Licensing Policies List

Below was a table showing the licensing policies currently in place with the timescales and proposal of new policies that Officers would be working on going forward.

Proposed Policies List

The Committee NOTED the contents in this report.