Following agreement at the Council’s Licensing Committee, the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Vehicle Licensing Policy has been revised with the fundamental aim of establishing appropriate conditions of licence for hackney carriage or private hire vehicles is to ensure that the vehicles are safe, afford a good level of comfort to passengers, whilst also providing sufficient capacity for luggage for the maximum number of passengers the vehicle is licensed to carry.
Key changes
The changes proposed in this revised Policy are intended to enhance the current position from the existing conditions of licence. The key changes in this policy are:
- Vehicle emission requirements have been introduced as a new vehicle condition to reflect greater focus on improving / reducing vehicle emissions. A vehicle presented for the grant of a new hackney carriage vehicle licence must be compliant with Euro 5 emission standards at the date of first registration, and all vehicles presented for the grant of a new private hire vehicle licence must be compliant with Euro 6 emission standards at the date of first registration. Any existing licensed hackney carriage can continue to be renewed if it does not meet Euro 5 standards and likewise for any existing private hire vehicles that does not meet Euro 6 standards.
- Under the current vehicle licence conditions, vehicles can be equipped with a full-size spare wheel, a space saver spare wheel, run-flat tyres, however the proposed change to vehicle conditions is to allow the use of emergency tyre sealant kits. This is to recognise the increase in new vehicles being presented for a licence that are equipped with emergency tyre sealant kits because run flat tyres are not readily available for those vehicles, and the vehicle design does not allow for the storage of a spare tyre or space saver wheel within the boot space of the vehicle. However, despite this proposed change, the requirement that the journey must be terminated by the driver in the event of a puncture or damage to a tyre remains a licence condition, and alternative arrangements must be made by the driver for the passengers to continue their journey. The journey must not continue with a passenger on board once one of the wheel / tyre replacement options has been used.
- Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Dashcam devices are becoming increasingly prevalent in many licensed vehicles and Knowsley’s existing licensed vehicle conditions do not reference these devices. A change to the conditions has been proposed to acknowledge that drivers / proprietors may choose to install a dashcam device in their vehicle should they wish to do so at their own discretion. These devices must only be installed to aid the prevention and detection of crime. However, the proposed conditions of licence do not mandate the installation of such devices. The conditions have therefore been amended to introduce specific actions that must be undertaken by the vehicle proprietor if they have chosen to install a CCTV / Dashcam device to ensure they are compliant with data protection rules which includes registering themselves as a Data Controller with the Information Commissioner and taking steps to securely store any data that the devices record.
The full revised policy can be found below, and any comments or feedback can be submitted up using the below form.
Vehicle Licence Policy - Consultation Form
Please send your comments by 30 September 2026.