Following nearly three years of campaigning on English Language Requirements for drivers in London, the LPHCA is delighted that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, alongside TfL Taxi & Private Hire (TfL TPH), has listened to the advice that the LPHCA and other trade organisations in a letter sent to him by the LPHCA in January 2019, and has suspended the current English Language Test Requirements until September 2020.
Following Professor Mohammed Abdel-Haq’s Taxi& Private Hire Vehicle Licensing: Steps Towards A Safer & More Robust System recommendations on National English Language Requirements and the government’s subsequent agreement, we recommended to the Mayor that 30th April 2019 deadline be suspended until a national standard is agreed.
Whilst this is not a total suspension, our Chairman Steve Wright MBE has said: “The 18-month extension will give government, the industry, regulators and other stakeholders, the opportunity, to set out and agree realistic English Language Requirements for PHV and taxi drivers nationally going forward.”
Mr Wright went on to say: “We are grateful that Mayor Khan and TfL TPH have listened, and we are extremely appreciative of the cross-party political support we have received from London Assembly Members, in particular Conservative Assembly Member Gareth Bacon, who brokered ‘politically neutral’ talks between the Mayor and Trade Representatives.”
Mr Wright continued: “I wish to thank Eddie Townson, Jimmy Lazarou, Greg Mendoza and Steve Garelick for the meetings they attended with us and the Mayor at City Hall. I would also like to thank LPHCA Members and others who have given via contributions to our fighting fund, which supports the work we do. Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who attended the dignified protest we organised at City Hall back in December 2016 when this campaign begun.”
The LPHCA is extremely optimistic that we now have the opportunity to get the right level of English Language Requirements nationally.