Regulation of private hire vehicles in London
6 Requirement for private hire vehicle licence.
(1)
A vehicle shall not be used as a private hire vehicle on a road in London unless a private hire vehicle licence is in force for that vehicle.
(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 for an offence under subsection (2) for the driver or 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 licence” means—
(a)
except where paragraph (b) or (c) applies, a London PHV 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, a licence under section 48 of the 1976 Act issued by the council for that district; and
(c)
if the vehicle is in use for the purposes of a hiring the booking for which was accepted in Scotland, a licence under section 10 of the M1Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (in this Act referred to as “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 a vehicle used 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.