The safety problem in taxi and private-hire isn’t a shortage of powers or a need for ever-bigger crackdowns. It’s authorities not consistently using the powers they already have—too often defaulting to paper exercises (DBS tick-boxes, template letters) instead of a full, evidence-led judgement about whether a person is safe and suitable to carry the public. Where authorities apply the law and guidance rigorously, safety follows. Where they don’t, “more enforcement” is just noise.
Why robotaxis alone won’t save mobility
The story of UK taxis over the last decade is not a morality tale about good cabs and bad apps. It’s a structural story. We built a market that rewards scale and liquidity on one side, and burdens local accountability on the other. The result is the great displacement: highly vetted, accessibility-capable taxis losing ground to lighter-touch pre-booked services that can roam across borders and arbitrage rules. Capping numbers won’t fix that. Changing who gets the work will.