Agenda and minutes

Councillor Saghir  -  other Council business

Councillor Spencer  -   work committments

Councillor Steel  -  personal

If you need advice on declaring an interest, please contact the Governance Officer above, if possible before the day of the meeting

Councillor Ali declared an interest as an employee of a taxi company in the city and the holder of a taxi driver’s licence. Whilst he remained in the room during consideration of the item at minute 25, he took no part in the discussion or vote.

Last meeting held on 20 October 2014 (for confirmation)

Subject to the inclusion of an apology for absence from Councillor Gul Khan, the Committee confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 20 October 2014 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

Report of Director of Community Protection

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Community Protection regarding a proposal to introduce, with effect from 1 January 2015, mandatory Safeguarding Awareness training for hackney carriage and private hire drivers licensed by Nottingham City Council.

Angela Rawson, City Licensing, presented the report and informed the Committee that the training would help drivers to identify vulnerable people and also raise their understanding of the relationship between the driver and vulnerable people and would apply to all new and existing drivers.

During discussion, all members of the Committee welcomed the proposal and noted that companies have been consulted about the proposals and all responses received have been in favour of the training.

RESOLVED that with effective from 1 January 2015:

(a)  all applicants for a new hackney carriage and private hire driver licence in Nottingham shall be required to attend Safeguarding Awareness training provided by Nottingham City Council as part of the application process and prior to a licence being granted:

(b)  all existing combined hackney carriage and private hire drivers in Nottingham shall be required to attend Safeguarding Awareness training provided by Nottingham City Council as part of the licence renewal process, and this shall be timed to coincide with the next renewal, which also requires a criminal records check (DBS) to be undertaken for the driver, it being noted that non-attendance at the training will result in the licence not being granted unless there are exceptional circumstances for non-attendance agreed with either the Licensing Manager or the Head of Licensing, Permits and Regulation.