On 28th January 2019, the LPHCA wrote to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan regarding clarification of the latest situation on English Language requirements. The letter said:
Dear Mayor Sadiq Khan,
When we last met, with fellow representatives from the GMB, Private Hire Board and Chauffeur & Executive Committee on Tuesday 22nd May 2018 to discuss appropriate English language requirements, you said that early in 2019, you would kindly reconsider the position if no resolution had been found.
Sadly, to date, TfL Taxi &Private Hire (TfL TPH) has not re-engaged with us on what in our view remains the overly-prescriptive and discriminatory requirements for London’s PHV drivers.
Since we met, Professor Mohammed Abdel-Haq has published his Taxi & Private Hire Vehicle Licensing: Steps Towards A Safer & More Robust System recommendations on 24th September 2018. The Professor’s report is now being considered by the Secretary of State for Transport the Rt Hon Chris Grayling, with clear considerations on language skills that should apply to all licensing authorities and may, ultimately, form part of National Minimum Standard legislation.
In his capacity as Chairman of the Task and Finish Group on Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Licensing the Professor’s Recommendation 28 states - Licensing authorities must require that all drivers are able to communicate in English orally and in writing to a standard that is required to fulfil their duties, including in emergency and other challenging situations.
With the latest deadline you kindly set looming in April, and mindful of Professor Abdel-Haq’s report, we believe that it would be sensible to suspend the deadline you set until a National Standard for English is established for both taxi and private hire drivers, which we are confident will be one of the adopted and broadly agreed outcomes of the wide-ranging review.
If TfL TPH continue with the existing requirements and pursue the current policy, as previously advised many ethnic, disabled and older drivers, that are perfectly capable of working competently in our industry (and have been doing so for many years in many cases), will be either subject to an expensive test that many won’t be able to pass or they can’t afford to take; a damaging amount of these drivers will become jobless for certain.
We believe the Professor’s recommendation for Standards for English Language to be a National Standard makes a lot of sense. For this and all the other reasons we have outlined previously, all the trade representatives, that met you following the request from AM Gareth Bacon, seek the suspension of the 30th April 2019 deadline until a National Standard is agreed.
As TfL TPH has not re-engaged with us in any way on English Language requirements, we presume that they are proceeding with the very damaging policy. For this and many other reasons, if the date is neither postponed again, or better still suspended, we will have a catastrophe on our hands in April. This would urgently necessitate the need for yet another meeting with you and AM Gareth Bacon that you agreed to have should a sensible resolution not be forthcoming.
Yours sincerely,
Steve Wright MBE (on behalf of the LPHCA and trade organisations mentioned above)
Since writing to the Mayor, the government has, as anticipated in our letter above, now published a Draft Statutory Guidance for Licensing Authorities consultation including language proficiency stating authorities should consider whether an applicant would have any problems in communicating with customers because of language difficulties. Licensing authorities have the freedom to specify the level of proficiency, but it is recommended to cover both oral and written English language skills necessary to fulfil their duties, including in emergency and other challenging situations.
This should include:
- conversing with passengers to demonstrate an understanding of the desired destination, an estimation of the time taken to get there and other common passenger requests
- providing a customer with correct change from a note or notes of higher value than the given fare, and doing so with relative simplicity
- providing a legibly written receipt upon request.
Whilst we note this advice says licensing authorities have the freedom to specify the level of proficiency, the bullet points convey the realistic level required to be a minicab driver, chauffeur or taxi driver. The current level of requirements for London, if applied across the UK, could, we estimate, put nearly 100,000 drivers out of work. As stated in my letter to London Mayor Sadiq Khan, we believe that it would be sensible to suspend the deadline until a National Standard for English is established for both taxi and private hire drivers. We therefore reiterate our position and urge the Mayor of London to ‘do the right thing’ by suspending the current requirements, until such times as National Standards are established.