Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins has not set a date for closing gaps that can leave a conviction unknown until a taxi licence is renewed.
On Tuesday 13 October, DUP MLA Gareth Wilson, Newry and Armagh, asked when that work would finish. He said some drivers convicted of serious offences had kept a licence for a significant period. The exchange is topical question AQT 2703/22-27 in the Official Report.
She said someone getting into a taxi has to be able to trust that they will get there safely. Gaps have been identified. Officials are talking to AccessNI, the PSNI and the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service about how convictions are reported, so that less time passes between a conviction being recorded and a licence renewal. She has not set a time frame. She said she would keep Wilson informed.
Cameras in taxis
Wilson said he understood that the Commissioner Designate for Victims of Crime had raised cameras in taxis with the Department, and he asked whether she had looked at that.
She said the proposal had not come to her. She will ask officials to scope what it would involve. She also said that, on the whole, taxi services in Northern Ireland are highly reputable and very safe.
Licences already revoked
Wilson had already put the delays to her in writing. In September, The Irish News reported her answers. In the four financial years from 2021/22 to 2024/25, 12 taxi licences were revoked over 24 convictions. Those were two sex offences, four for wounding or assault, six for possessing or converting criminal property, seven for fraud or forgery, four drugs offences and one for blackmail.
The time from conviction to revocation ran from three days to 1,805 days, which the paper called almost five years. It said it is not known which offence matches which delay.
A department spokesperson told the paper that, of just under 7,600 licensed taxi drivers, an average of about two a year over those five years had failed to declare a conviction that then led to revocation. Drivers are supposed to declare convictions when they apply, when they renew, and when they are convicted. The department said that does not always happen.
Tuesday's answers do not change the rules. There is no new duty on the police or the courts, and no decision on cameras.