Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998

12 Requirement for private hire vehicle driver’s licence. E+W

(1) No vehicle shall be used as a private hire vehicle on a road in London unless the driver holds a private hire vehicle driver’s licence.

(2) The driver and operator of a vehicle used in contravention of this section are each guilty of an offence.

(3) The owner of a vehicle who permits it to be used in contravention of this section is guilty of an offence.

(4) It is a defence in proceedings against the operator of a vehicle for an offence under subsection (2) for the operator to show that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the vehicle being used in contravention of this section.

(5) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

(6) In this section “private hire vehicle driver’s licence” means—

(a) except where paragraph (b) or (c) applies, a London PHV driver’s licence;

(b) if the vehicle is in use for the purposes of a hiring the booking for which was accepted outside London in a controlled district in England and Wales, a licence under section 51 of the 1976 Act issued by the council for that district; and

(c) if the vehicle is in use for a hiring the booking for which was accepted in Scotland, a licence under section 13 of the 1982 Act,

and for the purposes of paragraph (b) or (c) it is immaterial that the booking in question is a sub-contracted booking.

(7) This section does not apply to the use of a vehicle for the purposes of a hiring for a journey beginning outside London in an area of England and Wales which is not a controlled district.

Commencement Information

I1 S. 12(1)-(6) in force at 1.6.2003 by S.I. 2003/580, arts. 1(2), 2(2)(a)