Minutes:
The Director of Law and Corporate Governance reported that in June, 2004 the Standards Board for England had received a complaint that Councillor Bal might have breached the Local Code of Conduct for Members. The complaint was investigated by an Ethical Standards Officer and on 18th January, 2005 she referred her report and the matter to the Adjudication Panel for England for adjudication. A copy of the Case Tribunal’s detailed decision setting out the history of the complaint, the investigation thereof and the findings of the Tribunal was submitted to the Committee for information.
The Case Tribunal in determining this matter had made two recommendations to the Council which were that:-
(i) Hackney Carriage Driver Licence application forms should be made available in appropriate languages other than English;
(ii) Clear guidance should be made available to applicants including the necessity to disclose all previous convictions.
Under Section 80 of the Local Government Act 2000 the Council was required to consider any recommendations made by a Case Tribunal and prepare a report for the Standards Board for England giving details of what action it had taken or was proposing to take as a result of those recommendations. The Standards Committee was being asked to consider and make appropriate recommendations to the Council on the action recommended by the Case Tribunal. The Committee was not being asked to comment upon the Tribunal’s decision in respect of the complaint made against Councillor Bal.
The Council’s Taxi Licensing Officer advised the Committee that the Council was a member of the National Association of Licensing and Enforcement Officers and that she had consulted the other member authorities of the Association regarding the Tribunal’s recommendations and had found that only one other local authority provided application forms in another language. The authority was situated in Wales and their forms were produced in Welsh as well as English. She indicated that it was a requirement that Hackney Carriage and Private Hire vehicle drivers should be able to speak English in order to be able to communicate with their passengers, read road signs and issue receipts. She also indicated that in Slough there was likely to be in excess of 20 different languages spoken and that it would be impracticable to issue application forms in each of these languages. There was also the likelihood that if the forms were produced in other languages they would be completed in those languages which would present problems for the Licensing Officers. It was further pointed out that the knowledge test which all applicants were required to pass was in English and that a number of other local authorities had, as part of their application process, a written and spoken English test.
For the reasons outlined above, the Officers recommended that application forms for Hackney Carriage and Private Hire vehicle drivers’ licences should continue to be issued in English only but that guidance notes on completion of the forms should be made available in the five main ethnic minority languages spoken in Slough. With a view to identifying in which ethnic minority languages the guidance should be produced, it was proposed that the Officers would consult the Hackney Carriage Federation and the Private Hire Association. In addition, the Officers would, wherever practicable, ensure that help was available to those applicants who spoke other languages in the completion of their application forms.
In response to a question from a Member, the Officers indicated that the application forms were to be revised as part of the wider review currently being undertaken of the Private Hire and Hackney Carriage services and that the new forms would make it clear that drivers were required to give details of all previous convictions including those which were classed as being spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (as amended).
Recommended –
(a) That the Case Tribunal’s recommendation that application forms for a Hackney Carriage driver’s licence be made available in appropriate languages other than English be not acceded to for the reasons now given.
(b) That clear guidance notes on completing the application forms be made available in the five main ethnic minority languages spoken in Slough; these languages to be identified in consultation with the Hackney Carriage Federation and the Private Hire Association.
(c) That the Director of Law and Corporate Governance prepare a report detailing the action the Council proposes to take in respect of the Case Tribunal’s recommendations for submission to the Standards Board for England.
Resolved -
(d) That when available copies of the revised Hackney Carriage/Private Hire vehicle driver’s licence application forms be sent to the Members of the Standards Committee for information.