Administration and Delegation of Functions
The Council is responsible for a number of licensing functions, including Taxi licensing, and the responsibility for making decisions depends on the type of decision, the Council’s constitution and the scheme of delegation.
The Licensing and Public Safety Committee is made up of 15 members, including a chair and vice chair and an additional 3 reserve members. This Committee meets 3 or 4 times per year and is responsible for making all policy decision in relation to taxi licensing. Therefore any changes to how the Councils processes, administers or regulates the service must be agreed by this committee.
In addition, the General Licensing Sub-Committee of the Licensing and Public Safety Committee meets as and when required to consider in particular applications for hackney carriage and private hire licences, where circumstances mean they cannot be decided by Licensing Officers.
Many matters can be dealt with by Officers through the Scheme of Delegation, which allows the Council to efficiently process applications or carry out regulatory functions without hindering applicants, drivers, proprietors or operators by having to wait for a committee meeting.
Delegated Authority is given to the Director of Early Intervention. Individual operational officers are in turn authorised to discharge some of these functions.
A Copy of the relevant section of the Council’s Constitution and a summary of the scheme of delegation for taxi licensing is attached as Appendix 1.