National Register of Taxi Licence Refusals, Revocations and Suspensions

Bury Council is part of a new initiative to help strengthen hackney carriage/ private hire vehicle (PHV) licensing for the benefit of both passengers and responsible hackney carriage and PHV drivers.

The Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Safeguarding and Road Safety) Act 2022 has established a National Register to be used by licensing authorities for the recording of and searching for refusals, revocations and suspensions of taxi and PHV driver licences’. The NR3S National Register is hosted by the NAFN Data and Intelligence Services.

The purpose of the NR3S Register is to provide a mechanism for licensing authorities to share details of individuals who have had a hackney carriage or PHV licence suspended, revoked or an application for one refused. The intention of this is to prevent drivers who have had a Hackney carriage or private hire licence revoked or an application for one refused, going to another authority to dishonestly secure a licence by failing to disclose their previous licensing history.

Instances of drivers doing this in the past have undermined public confidence in the hackney carriage and private hire trade and licensing authorities. The development of NR3S has been welcomed by all sections of the taxi trade, safety groups and charities, the Department for Transport and by licensing authorities.

From 27 April 2023, this authority will begin using the NR3S. This means that from that point:

Applications for new Hackney carriage/private hire licences and for renewals will be checked on the NR3S
Where an existing licence is revoked or suspended or an application for renewal or a new licence is refused, this will be recorded on NR3S

This authority and other licensing authorities will also be adding historic information on refusals, revocations and suspensions of licenses’ to the Register. Historic data will not be added if 11 years have elapsed since the date of the decision.

The information recorded on NR3S is limited to:

Name of licence holder
National Insurance Number
Date of birth
Driving licence number
Taxi licence type
Address and contact details
Decision taken on refusal, revocation or suspension but not the reason for it
Date of decision

Where an applicant’s details are flagged on NR3S during a search, this will be followed up separately between the licensing authorities. Any such request in relation to your record will be responded to in accordance with the authority’s published policy.

All data processing and sharing undertaken by this authority on the NR3S Register and with individual authorities in regard to entries on the register will be undertaken in accordance with the Data Protection Act (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). The legal basis for processing this information is that it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the licensing authority. The purpose is to assess whether an individual is a fit and proper person to hold a hackney carriage or PHV licence.

It is not intended that any NR3S data will be transferred out of the United Kingdom.

You have various rights in relation to your data:

The right to request access to your data
The right to rectification or erasure of your data
The right to restrict processing of your data
The right to object to the processing of your data for this purpose
The authority will consider any such requests and respond within one month

If you wish to raise any issue related to the data protection legislation, including relying on any of the rights afforded to data subjects under the GDPR, you can do so by contacting the authority’s Data Protection Officer at IG@bury.gov.uk.
This includes submitting a subject access request.

You always have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Safeguarding and Road Safety) Act 2022, was introduced on 31 March 2022.

The Act places duties on licensing authorities to share safeguarding and road safety concerns about taxi and private hire vehicle drivers. Licensing authorities are now required to input onto a National Register instances where the authority has refused, suspended, chosen not to renew or revoked a taxi or PHV driver’s licence based wholly or in part on information relating to the driver concerning safeguarding or road safety.

The Register improves public safety and confidence in hackney carriage and PHV licensing. There have been numerous high profile cases where drivers who have been refused licences or had a licence revoked or suspended in one area have gone to another area and received a licence in that area by failing to disclose their previous history. This undermines public safety if there are legitimate reasons why a licence was refused, revoked or suspended.
It also damages confidence in the hackney carriage/PHV licensing regime and trade.

The initiative is widely supported by reputable drivers and firms, as it provides a mechanism for ensuring information about refusals, revocations and suspensions can be shared between all licensing authorities in a safe and secure way.

When an authority revokes or suspends a licence, or refuses an application for one, it will record this information on NR3S Register. The information recorded will be limited to:

Licensing Authority URN
Name, address and date of birth of licence holder
National Insurance Number
Licence holder contact details
Driving licence number
Taxi licence type
Decision taken on refusal, revocation or suspension (but not the reason for it)
Date of decision

Licensing authorities will search the NR3S Register when processing new applications or renewals. Where a licensing authority finds a match for their applicant on NR3S, it will contact the licensing authority that recorded the entry to seek more information, which will be used to help reach a decision on the application.

No.

Licensing authorities are legally required to consider each taxi licence application on its own merits, and cannot refuse an application simply because an applicant may be recorded on the NR3S Register. The purpose of the Register is to ensure that authorities have the full information necessary to help them reach a decision on whether an individual is ‘fit and proper’.

If circumstances have materially changed since the decision that has been recorded on NR3S, it may be appropriate for another authority to award a licence.

Individuals whose details are added to NR3S Register will be notified of this at the point at which they are advised of the decision to refuse, revoke or suspend a licence.

Outside of these times, an individual can make a Subject Access Request (SAR) for any of their personal data held on NR3S Register. The ‘Data Controller’ in respect of this data is this licensing authority, to whom a SAR should be submitted in the first instance.

As the ‘Data Processor’, that is the organisation storing the data, NAFN Data and Intelligence Services will fulfil this request. Similarly, the exercise of any other rights provided under data protection legislation should be made to this authority in the first instance.

National Register of Taxi Licence Refusals, Revocations and Suspensions

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Frequently asked questions

National Register of Taxi Licence Refusals, Revocations and Suspensions

Main content area

Frequently asked questions

Why has the NR3S Register been set up?

How will the register work – what information will be recorded?

Will I automatically be refused a taxi licence if I am on the NR3S Register?

Can I find out if my details are on the NR3S Register?

How long will details be held on NR3S Register?