Taxi licences
Penalty points system
We use a penalty point system of enforcement. The purpose of the scheme is to provide a balanced, consistent and transparent approach of enforcement against licence holders who commit offences. The scheme does not prevent USL from taking any other enforcement actions it is entitled to take under legislation or byelaws.
The overriding aim of the licensing function is to protect the public from harm and reduce public nuisance being caused by the trades breaching the law, regulations and conditions of licence.
Method of operation
Points will be issued by this Licensing Authority to licence holders who are found to be in breach of legislation, byelaws, policy or conditions of licence. Points will be issued by means of a written notice on which shall be supplied the number of points imposed and the reason/s for which they have been issued.
The maximum number of points that can be imposed in respect of any particular matter is set out in the table below, but it is possible for one incident or inspection to result in more than one set of points being issued.
If a licence holder accumulates 12 points or more within a rolling period of 12 months, then their licence will be subject to a review by the Licensing sub-committee.
Any licence holder aggrieved by the imposition of penalty points on their licence may appeal to either the Magistrates Court or Taxi Licensing sub-committee where they will have the opportunity to explain why the points should not have been imposed.
Notice of the appeal must be submitted in writing to Health & Environmental Services within 21 days of date of the penalty points letter.
The tables list the breaches of legislation that attract penalty points. Any subsequent amendments to the legislation will supersede the tables and this document may be amended to reflect the revised legislation, condition or byelaw.
Where a breach is proven that is a combination of any of the offences, the option to allocate points for each of the offences can be utilised by any authorised licensing officer or the Licensing sub-committee.
Following a revocation by the Licensing sub-committee, due to the accumulation of penalty points, a new licence application will not usually be accepted and granted by the council for a minimum period of 6 months.