New hackney carriage and private hire driver licences

DBS check

Convictions

When submitting an application, you need to declare any convictions or cautions you may have, not matter how old they are. Convictions, whether 'spent' or 'unspent' under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 will be taken into consideration.

Please see current licensing policy for further information on convictions.

Applicants are required to hold a criminal record check through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) as part of their application. This must be a DBS Enhanced Disclosure with the Adults and Children’s Barred list check.

All applicants must complete this check with the Council’ approved provider Taxiplus.

You should be aware that we are allowed to check for the existence and content of any criminal record held in the name of an applicant.

DBS update service

It is mandatory to subscribe to the DBS Update service.

The update service will provide information if there is any new information since your last DBS certificate was issued. For this reason, it is important that you always retain your last DBS certificate should it be required.

DBS update service checks will automatically be run at a minimum of at least 6 months.

If any changes are recorded a licence holder will be required to undertake a new DBS check through Taxiplus at their own expense.

Only DBS certificates, completed through TaxiPlus, WNC or our legacy authorities and that are registered with the online update services will be accepted.

Certificate of good character

If you have spent six months or more continuously outside the UK in the last five years, evidence of a criminal record check from the countries visited (covering the duration overseas) will be needed.

Where such checks are not available, a certificate of good character (previously named certificate of good conduct) needs to be authenticated by the relevant embassy.

The certificate of good character must be in English.

Last updated 29 November 2023