Taxi licensing - privacy notice

What personal information is being processed and what for

Name
Address
Phone Number
Email Address
Date of birth
Medical information
Driver licence information and history including penalty points, disqualifications and endorsements
Criminal conviction information and complete history (please note that the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 does not apply to the taxi trade, and no conviction is therefore ever considered to be spent)
Proof of your right to work and reside in the United Kingdom
Certificate of Good Conduct from any other Countries
Personal Information of complainants

Please note that all the above information is collected in relation to an application for a drivers’ licence. A lesser amount of personal information is required prior to the grant of a vehicle or operator licence (including Vehicle details and registration mark).

Why we are allowed to use your information

We have a statutory duty under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, Town Police Clauses Act 1847 (and associated regulations and amended legislation) to ensure that those we licence are fit and proper persons.

To deliver these we need to collect and use personal information of those using or affected by these services.

Who we will share your information with

Cheshire Police and Other Police Forces/Enforcement Agencies - From time to time we get requests from the police for information that will assist them in investigating and preventing crime. We can share your information with the police if the law allows us too. We also have a data sharing agreement with Cheshire Police that allows us to share information
Councillors who sit on the Council’s licensing committees – Where we refer your application or licence (in the case of a review) to the Council’s licensing committees for determination.
Publicly available – we are required to hold some of your data in Public Registers. The information that is in the register is set down in the legislation
Internal Council Departments (including Alternative Service Delivery Vehicles such as ANSA) who requires access to your information for the purpose of administration, regulation and law enforcement. From time to time we may share your information with other Council Departments if the law allows us to do so
Cabinet Office (as part of the National Fraud Initiative). We have a legal duty to submit information to the Government as part of the National Fraud Initiative (NFI).You can read about the type of information we have to disclose to the NFI on their website
HM Revenue & Customs - we have a statutory duty under schedule 23 of the Finance Act 2011 to submit returns to the HMRC . National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN) – we share information with NAFN as part of the national database of taxi and PHV driver licence refusals, suspensions and revocations
Department for Transport – we will share some information with the DFT for statistic purposes. This would not normally include personal or sensitive information
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs – we share information with DEFRA as required by The Air Quality (Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles Database) (England and Wales) Regulations 2019. The information we are required to share with DEFRA includes: Vehicle Registration Mark, the start and expiry date of the vehicle licence, whether the vehicle is a taxi or PHV, the name of the licensing authority, the licence plate number and an indication of whether it is a wheelchair accessible vehicle
Approved Testing Vehicle Testing Stations.The Council shares personal information with garages that carry out vehicle tests.This includes full names and vehicle details (for example the vehicle registration mark).

Where we get your information from

Applicants and existing drivers
The Disclosure and Barring Service – to check if you are eligible to hold a licence
Cheshire Police – to check criminal history
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (via gov.uk website) to view your driving record, for example vehicles you can drive and/or to check your penalty points or disqualifications.
Other licensing authorities whom you may have held a licence with Medical professionals and practitioners responsible for certifying your fitness to hold a licence
Licensed operators

How long we will keep your personal information

We only keep information for as long as it is needed. This will differ according to what information we hold and its purpose. It will be based on either a legal requirement (where a law says we have to keep information for a specific period of time) or accepted business practice.

Within our Team, we keep the following information for the following periods:

Information submitted as part of an application - 6 years after the date in which the application is refused
Information held in respect of a licence - 6 years after the date from which the licence ceases to be held
Information received as part of an enforcement investigation – for a minimum of 6 years and then for only so long as may be necessary to inform a decision to protect the public
Information held on the NR3 database will be held for a period of 25 years

Full details are available on the Council’s Information Asset Register.

How your information is stored

We store this information in computers systems, which can only be accessed by password. The systems we use have security features that means we can limit information that officers can access. This means that only officers needing to use your data for the purpose intended can access it.

What happens if you don’t provide us with your information

If you don’t provide us with your information we will not be able to assess your application and you may not be granted a licence.

Will your information be used to make automated decisions

Your rights

You have a number of rights regarding your personal data, including withdrawing your consent where we have asked for it.

You can also ask for a copy of the information we hold about you and ask us to correct anything that is wrong.

For detailed information about your rights please see the Cheshire East privacy notice.

Page last reviewed: 10 August 2022