Request:
Please could you provide me with a list of all Hackney Carriages and Private Hire Vehicles currently licenced by North Tyneside Council.
For each vehicle could you supply the following information:
1. Is it a Hackney Carriage or Private Hire Vehicle?
2. Is the vehicle wheelchair accessible?
3. Hackney Carriage or Private Hire Vehicle plate number.
4. Registration Number.
5. Date registered with the DVLA.
6. Vehicle make and model.
7. Vehicle colour.
8. Names of all current proprietors.
9. Name of the operator the vehicle is working for.
I understand you should be able provide the above information for Hackney Carriage vehicles under the terms of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847, in particular Section 41 and Section 42. If you are unable to provide the names of individual proprietors of Private Hire Vehicles, please can you provide proprietor details where the vehicle is owned by a Limited Company, Public Limited Company or Limited Liability Partnership. I understand that Limited Companies, Public Limited Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships are exempt from GDPR and Data Protection restraints as they are not living persons.
Please can you also provide the operator details as again the operator is not an individual but normally a company (e.g. Radar, Blueline). Therefore, this information does not relate to an individual and no individual can be identified from it. In particular you should be able to provide this information to all wheelchair accessible vehicles operated by private hire businesses under the terms of the Equality Act 2010 and Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Disabled Persons) Act 2022. Under the terms of these two acts, you are statutorily
required to produce publicly available lists of all hackney carriages and private hire vehicles showing operator details (where available).
Please can you also provide me with a list of all private hire operators currently licensed by North Tyneside Council. For each private hire operator, please provide the following:
10. Licence holder's name or names
11. Trading Name
12. Business Address (please supply details of all addresses if in more than one location)
13. Number of vehicles allowed under the licence
14. Date the licence started
15. Date the licence ends
16. Details of any telephone or email address you hold that can be used by a member of public to enquire about booking a taxi.
Response:
Section 42 the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 and Section 51(3) of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 state Councils must maintain a book/register of drivers licenced to drive Hackney Carriages and Private Hire Vehicles.
The following information is refused in answer to this request under section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, information accessible to the applicant by other means. The reason for this is that this information is publicly available under the above Acts:
1. Is it a Hackney Carriage or Private Hire Vehicle?
3. Hackney Carriage or Private Hire Vehicle plate number.
6. Vehicle make and model.
7. Vehicle colour.
8. Names of all current proprietors.
10. Licence holder's name or names
11. Trading Name
14. Date the licence started
15. Date the licence ends
2. Is the vehicle wheelchair accessible?
This information is refused in answer to this request under section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, information accessible to the applicant by other means.
The reason for this is that this information is published on the North Tyneside website here https://my.northtyneside.gov.uk/category/883/vehicles
4. Registration Number
Vehicle Registration Numbers are not being supplied after applying section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act (personal data) following the ICO decision on the 8 March 2019.
Vehicle Registration Numbers are exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act (personal data) following the ICO decision Reference, FS50793373, link below: https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-taken/decision-notices/2019/2614512/fs50793373.pdf
5. Date registered with the DVLA
This information is not held in an extractable format and each of the 856 records held would have to be accessed individually to gather this information. Therefore, this part of the request is refused under section 12
(1) Freedom of Information Act 2000, since the cost of complying would exceed the appropriate limit set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
In assessing the cost of complying, the costs attributable to officer time involved in complying have been considered. Such costs are limited to £450.00 under the Regulations, which equates to eighteen hours of officer time.
9. Name of the operator the vehicle is working for.
This information is not recorded by the Authority.
12. Business Address (please supply details of all addresses if in more than one location)
This information is refused in answer to this request under section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, information accessible to the applicant by other means. The reason for this is that this information is available via each taxi operator.
13. Number of vehicles allowed under the licence.
This information is not recorded by the Authority.
16. Details of any telephone or email address you hold that can be used by a member of public to enquire about booking a taxi.
This information is refused in answer to this request under section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, information accessible to the applicant by other means. The reason for this is that this information is available via each taxi operator.