Agenda item

To approve a public consultation on CCTV in taxi and private hire vehicles as detailed at Appendix A to the report.

16.1          The report of the Licensing Operations and Development Team Leader, circulated at Pages No. 5-13, asked Members to approve a public consultation on CCTV in taxi and private hire vehicles as detailed at Appendix A to the report.

16.2          The Licensing Operations and Development Team Leader advised that the Licensing Committee had adopted the Gloucestershire Common Standards for taxi and private hire licensing in October 2021 – this was the first stage of work undertaken by the Gloucestershire Licensing Officer Group to consider and comply with the statutory standards issued by the Department of Transport in 2020.  Following on from that work, a second stage of the Common Standards was now being undertaken in relation to the recommendation that all licensing authorities should consult on the impact of having CCTV in vehicles.  The Gloucestershire Licensing Officer Group had come up with the proposed consultation questions set out at Pages No. 11-13 of the report with the aim of identifying if there was local evidence that would support each local authority introducing a mandatory CCTV policy.  It was intended that each of the Gloucestershire licensing authorities would use the same consultation document and consult at the same time and the Gloucestershire Licensing Officer Group would meet to discuss the responses before looking at any further steps.

16.3          A Member asked what views had been expressed to date and the Licensing Operations and Development Team Leader advised it was very mixed, some did not want CCTV due to the financial implications - it was noted that a decent system could be purchased for around £300 – whereas the Police were quite keen to introduce it.  She pointed out that Gloucestershire County Council already had a requirement for CCTV to be used for school contracts.  The Member felt that the views of passengers would be important but they were not necessarily easy to reach so he asked how it was proposed to consult with them.  The Licensing Operations and Development Team Leader indicated that it was intended to work with the Communications team to promote the consultation on social media and the Council’s website.  Another Member asked who was collating the responses and whether the Licensing Committee would be able to see the responses received by the other Gloucestershire licensing authorities.  The Licensing Operations and Development Team Leader advised that there was a lot of work still to do but she undertook to keep Members updated and indicated that the responses would be brought back to the Committee in due course.

16.4          A Member drew attention to Page No. 13 of the report and indicated there was a typographical error in question 2 under the ‘Extra Questions for licence holders’ section where ‘have’ had been placed at the end of the sentence.  The Licensing Operations and Development Team Leader undertook to ensure this was amended.  It was subsequently

RESOLVED          That a public consultation on CCTV in taxi and private hire vehicles be APPROVED as detailed at Appendix A to the report, subject to an amendment to Page No. 13, question 2 as follows: Do you have a CCTV system installed in your current licensed vehicle?have