Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Director of Law and Governance.

The Board considered a briefing note from the Director of Law and Governance that provided an overview of the recommendations from the CCTV in Taxis Task and Finish Group.

At their meeting on the 17th of July 2025, Communities and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Board (4) agreed to establish a task and finish group to establish whether the Council should require taxis to have CCTV as part of Licensing requirements.

Mandatory CCTV had been considered previously by way of a Cabinet Member report in 2022, a 12-week consultation was undertaken, where 67.9% of respondents did not support the proposal.

The Task and Finish Group have met twice so far. The first meeting was to agree the scope of the Task and Finish Group, as well as to provide some background and context to the work being planned. The second meeting was to consider research summarising key points from other local authorities’ experience, as well as information on data collected by the police.

Information was circulated on the Governments proposals on national taxi licensing in response to the recommendations in the National Audit on Group Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. Members were informed that the Department of Transport were proposing to launch a consultation on national standards for taxi licensing. Although there was no specific timeline on this and some of the details were still to be announced it was noted this could impact and recontextualise any recommendations made by the task and finish group on taxi licensing requirements.

Members of the T&F group agreed to meet one more time to consider the questions contained in the government’s consultation and requested that the Council formally respond within the given consultation period.

In considering the briefing note, the Board questioned officers, received responses, and discussed matters as summarised below:

• That Recommendation 1 was aimed at addressing concerns over a lack of formal reporting mechanisms of taxi driver-based crimes to the council.
• That any potential introduction of CCTV in taxis would help with the protection of both taxi drivers and passengers.

The board made note that although no formal recommendation had been made by the task and finish group on the matter, the board supported the introduction of CCTV in taxis in principle.

RESOLVED that the Communities and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Board (4):

1. Request that the Cabinet Member for City Services:

2. Agrees that a letter is sent to the Mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority, the Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midland, the Secretary of State for Transport and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, requesting clear timescales for progress on this matter following the closure of the public consultation, and in addition to raise concerns that the consultation does not fully address the safeguarding recommendations made by Dame Louise Casey regarding taxi licensing.