Increased DBS checks for taxi drivers in Royal Borough

Windsor and Maidenhead council has approved a ‘radical change’ to implement six-monthly DBS checks for taxi drivers.

At a licensing meeting on Tuesday, councillors voted in favour of all licenced hackney carriage and private hire drivers having their DBS checked for new information every six months.

The incurred charges will be covered by individual drivers and enalty points will also be introduced for non-compliance.

A public consultation over the proposed DBS changes showed that 81.9 per cent of respondents agreed with the new six-monthly checks, and a third-party ‘DBS Update Service Status Checks’ facility is the preferred option.

However, registered speaker Mr Jaffri told the licensing panel that the 68 per cent of people who said Hackney carriage drivers should bear the costs were ‘highly’ misled by the question.

He suggested that if the cost to the driver was mentioned, it would have been ‘overturned’ and said switching from a three-year to a six-month DBS check is a ‘too radical change for us to bear’.

Mr Jaffri added: “At the last licencing meeting, we were under the influence that this would be cheaper than doing the current three-year DBS check.

“The payment is too much. A lot of drivers are struggling, and it is hard to make a living.

“We have been advocating in the past to lessen the burden on taxi drivers.

“When is the council going to do something for the drivers?”

He suggested that the council should foot the bill to ‘ensure how seriously they are willing to help drivers’.

The DBS costs would be an initial £59 fee to sign up for the online service, £13 per year for the DBS Update Service, and £7.20 per year for the ‘DBS Update Service Status Checks’ facility.

The £7.20 would be waived for the first year and recharged to the borough.

The council would recover this cost by increasing the hackney carriage and private hire drivers’ licence charges in April next year.

Drivers will pay £72 in the first year and £20.20 in all subsequent years.

The meeting took place at Maidenhead Town Hall.