Metropolitan Public Carriage Act 1869

Licensing Drivers of Hackney and Stage Carriages

8 Hackney carriage to be driven by licensed drivers.

No hackney carriage shall ply for hire within the limits of this Act unless under the charge of a driver having a licence from the said Secretary of State, and no stage carriage shall ply for hire within the limits of this Act unless the conductor and driver of such carriage have respectively licences from the said Secretary of State. -If any hackney or stage carriage plies for lure in contravention of this section, the person driving the same, and also the owner of such carriage, unless he proves, in the case of a hackney carriage, that the driver, and in the case of a stage carriage, that the conductor or driver, as the case may require, acted without his privity or consent, shall respectively be liable to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings.

A licence to the driver or conductor of a hackney or stage carriage may be granted at such price, on such conditions, be in such form, be subject to revocation or suspension in such events, and generally be dealt with in such manner as the said Secretary of State may by order prescribe, subject to this provision, that any such licence shall, if not revoked or suspended, be in force for one year, and there shall be paid in respect thereof to the Receiver of the Metropolitan Police, to be carried to the account of the Metropolitan Police Fund, such sum not exceeding five shillings as the said Secretary of State may prescribe. This clause shall not repeal the tenth section of an Act of the sixth and seventh years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter eighty-six.