Councils demand more powers over rogue taxi drivers after rise of Uber
UBER SEX CRIMES ‘COVER-UP’
TAXI laws must be updated to protect passengers after a string of Uber driver attacks, council bosses will say today.
The Uber app allows customers to book a taxi anywhere – meaning councils are powerless to regulate the company.
Currently local taxi businesses are licensed by local authorities but the new technology firm operates across borders. Police figures show sex attack claims involving Uber drivers are up 50 per cent in a year in the capital.
Between February 2015 and February 2016, there were 32 claims made against the firm’s drivers in London.
But in the past 12 months to February 2017, that figure shot up to 48 alleged attacks.
The Local Government Association (LGA), the body representing councils in England and Wales, said laws dating back to 1847 needed updating to protect passengers and create a level field.
The LGA has urged the Government to support legislation to modernise the licensing system.
It wants national minimum licensing standards for drivers of taxis and private hire vehicles, a national database of all licensed taxi and private hire vehicles drivers, and cross border hiring.
Councils cannot take enforcement action against the rising numbers of taxi drivers licensed by other authorities operating in their area, the LGA claimed.
It argued while local mini cab companies and black cabs have to adhere to the rules, Uber and other firms from outside licensing areas escape scrutiny despite operating on the same roads.
There are also concerns drivers who have been refused or had a licence revoked by one authority were able to be licensed by another authority.
Earlier this month, the Daily Mail reported that according to police, Uber had not been reporting sex attacks by its drivers. The firm was accused of putting passenger safety at risk by failing to inform officers of ‘serious crimes’ in a formal letter from Scotland Yard. The alleged offences included at least six sex attacks and an assault.
In one case, the firm was alerted to a sexual assault on a woman by a driver but took no action after he denied it. The driver was only blocked from working after he committed a more serious attack on a second woman.
During the Rotherham child sex grooming scandal, a ‘common thread’ emerged that taxi drivers would pick the children up for sex from care homes and schools.
The Mail also revealed earlier this year how David Cameron and George Osborne allegedly told aides to lobby Boris Johnson against curbs on Uber. When Mr Johnson was mayor of London in September 2015 he threatened to curtail the activities of the smartphone app.
He wanted to force all drivers to pass a written English test – Uber employs a lot of drivers whose first language is not English. Councillor Clive Woodbridge, from the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said: ‘Councils have long argued that there is a need for the existing outdated taxi laws to be updated.
‘ The legislation governing aspects of taxis and private hire vehicles pre-dates the motor car and is simply not fit for purpose in an era when mobile phone technology is significantly changing the way people access private hire vehicles. In recent years, a number of child sexual exploitation cases have involved taxi and private hire vehicle holders abusing the trust that has been placed in them, so there are strong safeguarding reasons for strengthening current legislation.’
Current laws date back to the times of horse- drawn Hackney carriages. A bill working its way through Parliament wants to liberalise the rules so drivers can operate in other council areas.
‘Laws pre-date the motor car’