English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

Lord Bradley Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 8th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bradley (Lab)]

My Lords, I rise very briefly to raise a particular issue at this Second Reading debate on a Bill which I am very pleased to support. The issue is the need for legislative change to address out-of-area taxi licensing, which has been raised several times in the debate today. This is part of a campaign led by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham—who, by the way, is quite popular—and council leaders in the devolved Greater Manchester Authority, entitled “Backing Our Taxis: Local. Licenced. Trusted”, which calls for more local accountability to drive higher taxi standards and stronger public safety, and to safeguard the livelihoods of drivers. As a former chair of the licensing committee on Manchester City Council, I welcome that initiative.

On Report in the other place, as we have heard already today from the Minister, the Government introduced an amendment to the Bill that would provide the Secretary of State for Transport with the power to introduce national minimum standards for the licensing arrangements for drivers, operators and vehicles. This should present a valuable opportunity for greater consistency, improve public confidence and improve support across the sector. However, its success will depend on the reasonableness and appropriateness of these standards and, most importantly, on their implementation and ensuring compliance with them. The Bill does not yet set out what these national standards would be, but this can be further debated as it progresses in this House.

However, while it is very positive that the Government are willing to add taxi and private hire services into the scope of the Bill, a key concern remains, as we have heard on several occasions tonight, that out-of-area operations remain unaddressed. This was particularly highlighted by the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, in her contribution. As the Minister referenced, the National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse from the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, highlighted the challenges that out-of-area taxis have presented to local authorities trying to enforce standards to protect children at the risk of child sexual exploitation. As the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, noted, the report recommended that the Government take immediate action to put a stop to out-of-area taxis and bring in more rigorous statutory standards for local authority licensing and regulation of taxi drivers.

The Government accepted the report’s recommendations, including for the Department for Transport to take immediate action to stop out-of-area practices, as we have heard. We have also noted that many licensees operate predominantly outside the district in which they have been licensed. As a resident of Manchester, I see numerous licence plates from Wolverhampton every time I walk into my local village.

Mayor Andy Burnham and Greater Manchester leaders have supported Elsie Blundell MP, who has been championing the out-of-area issue in the other place. She tabled a new clause for an optional “license where you operate” model, which will give mayoral strategic authorities power to require that journeys wholly within their strategic area are fulfilled by locally licensed operators. There may be other options than this proposed amendment, which I am sure we can debate at a later stage, as the Bill progresses.

What is most important today is that there is no clear government stance on advancing the Casey recommendation. I hope that my noble friend the Minister will clarify the Government’s position on this when she responds to the debate, so that we can clearly determine whether further legislative change will be required during the passage of the Bill.