Taxi licence

Privacy notice for hackney carriage and private hire vehicle licencing

This privacy notice explains how our licensing team will collect, use and share your personal information.

What information we collect about you 

We collect the following information when you complete our forms as part of a licence application or from third parties.

  • name, contact details, national insurance number
  • vehicle details to include; history of purchase, start and expiry date of a licence, vehicle plate number, vehicle registration number, whether vehicle is private hire or hackney carriage, whether vehicle is wheelchair accessible
  • Medical Assessment Certificate (Information about your health from your GP) 
  • knowledge test
  • driving assessment
  • DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) check
  • criminal record details 
  • immigration status and duration in and out of the UK  
  • evidence of Right to Work details 
  • photograph and date of birth for ID purposes
  • past address and taxi trade history 
  • driving licence details 
  • reference details 
  • name of drivers authorised to drive a licensed vehicle 
  • private hire business details including staff details 
  • driver, vehicle and operator insurance details  
  • driver, wheelchair and driver training day test results 
  • complaints history, including committee and court reports 

Where we get your information from

  • the applicant or existing drivers
  • the Disclosure and Barring Service – to check if you are eligible to hold a licence
  • police – to check criminal history
  • the DVLA (via GOV.UK) to view your driving record, for example vehicles you can drive and/or to check your penalty points or disqualifications
  • other licensing authorities whom you may have held a licence with
  • medical professionals and practitioners responsible for certifying your fitness to hold a licence
  • licensed operators

Why we need information about you 

We process personal data because it is necessary to comply with our statutory duty to ensure that those we licence are fit and proper persons, make sure the public is safe and protect public funds. The processing of personal data is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority and for reasons of substantial public interest and the exercise of a function conferred by an enactment or rule of law.

The laws include:

  • Local Government (Miscellaneous) Provisions Act 1976 
  • Town Police Clauses Act 1847 & 1889 
  • Transport Act 1985, 1991  
  • Equality Act 2010  
  • Criminal Justice & Public Order Act 1994  
  • Immigration Act 2016 
  • Deregulation Act 2015  
  • The Air Quality (Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles Database) England Wales Regulations 2019

Who we may share data with

Your personal information may be shared with:

  • partner authorities
  • enforcement agencies including but not limited to the police
  • insurance companies
  • Secretary of State
  • legal/medical practitioners who work in connection with legal/medical proceedings or enquiries if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that you are acting in a criminal or fraudulent way or bring into question the safety and/or protection of the public
  • Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) 
  • Department of Works and Pensions
  • Border Agency 
  • Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)
  • Bedfordshire Police and other police forces / enforcement agencies (from time to time, we get requests from the police for information that will assist them in investigating and preventing crime; we can share your information with the police if the law allows us too and we have a data sharing agreement with Bedfordshire Police that allows us to share information)
  • councillors who sit on our licensing committees – where we refer your application or licence (in the case of a review) to our licensing committees for determination
  • internal council departments that requires access to your information for the purpose of administration, regulation and law enforcement
  • Cabinet Office (as part of the National Fraud Initiative); we have a legal duty to submit information to the government as part of the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) (visit GOV.UK to find out which types of information we have to disclose to the NFI)
  • HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC); we have a statutory duty under schedule 23 of the Finance Act 2011 to submit returns to the HMRC
  • National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN); we share information with NAFN as part of the national database of taxi and private hire vehicle driver licence refusals, suspensions and revocations
  • Department for Transport (DfT); we will share some information with the  DfT for statistical purposes (this would not normally include personal or sensitive information)
  • Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA); we share information with  DEFRA as required by The Air Quality (Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles Database) (England and Wales) Regulations 2019 (information we are required to share with DEFRA includes: vehicle registration mark, the start and expiry date of the vehicle licence, whether the vehicle is a taxi or private hire vehicle, the name of the licensing authority, the licence plate number and an indication of whether it is a wheelchair accessible vehicle)
  • approved vehicle testing stations; we share personal information with garages that carry out vehicle tests, which includes full names and vehicle details (for example the vehicle registration mark)
  • publicly available; we are required to hold some of your data in public registers (the information that is in the register is set down in the legislation and private hire operator details including trading name, email and telephone number, licence number will be published on our website)

We will only share your personal data if there is a lawful basis to do this.

How long we keep your information for

We only keep information for as long as it is necessary. This will differ according to what information we hold and its purpose. It will be based on either a legal requirement (where a law says we have to keep information for a specific period of time) or accepted business practice.

Within our licensing team, we keep the following information for the following periods:

  • information submitted as part of an application: 6 years after the date in which the application is refused
  • information held in respect of a licence: 6 years after the date from which the licence ceases to be held
  • information received as part of an enforcement investigation: a minimum of 6 years and then for only so long as may be necessary to inform a decision to protect the public

Your rights 

You have the right to ask for us to:

  • provide a copy of the personal information held about you 
  • correct any inaccurate information 
  • to object to the use of the personal data
  • restrict, in some cases, how we use your information

To exercise any of these rights please contact:

Email: information.governance@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
Telephone: 0300 300 4968

Complaints 

You have the right to submit a complaint if you are unhappy with the way your personal data is handled, or how a request has been handled. You can do this by contacting our Data Protection Officer.

Email: information.governance@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
Telephone: 0300 300 4968

If you are not satisfied with any outcome from the officer, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner's Office:

Visit the Information Commissioner's Office website

The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF