Speeches by Greenwood.

“I absolutely agree that emissions are a big issue, particularly in our towns and cities. It is perhaps less of an issue for a taxi and PHV operating in a much more rural area. There is an argument for saying that if you are a licensing authority primarily looking after a city or urban area, that it is reasonable to inc…”

“We certainly want to draw on it. I would be very clear that there is a need for fundamental change to the regulations to put them all in a sensible place. We have the Town Police Clauses Act 1847, the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976), and then we just have a series of sticking plasters really to tr…”

“That is a really important question. There are some areas that I do not think we would actually allow for any variation from. When it comes to safeguarding, safety and accessibility, we want to set standards that it would be hard to improve on. For example, when it comes to safeguarding, we want every local authority t…”

“As we develop our proposals in the future, we absolutely want to draw on the work that the Law Commission and the task and finish group did. Although it is now a little while ago—I think it was 12 years ago—many of the issues that they identified and put forward suggestions around have not changed markedly. We would ab…”

“I am absolutely aware of the issues and it is not a good situation. I do not want people to shop around for licences. The idea of introducing national minimum standards is partly because we wanted to act quickly, particularly in response to Baroness Casey’s recommendations, and there was an opportune way to do that. We…”

“My hon. Friend has made his point very well. We will also continue to encourage safer road user behaviours in order to improve safety for all vulnerable road users, including horse riders, motorcyclists, cyclists, pedestrians and road workers. Our flagship road safety campaign, THINK!, will continue to do that, alongsi…”

“My hon. Friend makes an important point, and I agree with him. As has already been noted, despite the investment of £2.4 million in paid advertising raising road users’ awareness of the changes to the code, it is clear that more action is needed. As set out in the strategy, we are considering options to improve the saf…”

“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Dowd; I know you have a deep personal commitment to road safety. I congratulate the hon. Member for Newbury (Mr Dillon) on securing this debate and thank him for raising the vital issue of road safety and vulnerable users, specifically horse riders. It is clear that t…”

“Yes, that is appropriate. I cannot remember if it is our statutory guidance or best practice guidance but we have already set out that people should have a certain level of English. It is important for communicating with passengers and for understanding safety information. I know local authorities have different ways t…”

“Yes.”

“There would be a very strong incentive for your taxi to comply with the ULEZ regulations.”

“There are two reasons. Obviously, fees are determined by local authorities in order to be self-funding. I recognise that the cost of operating in a local authority service is not uniform across the country. There will be variations, for example, in wage rates in different places; local authorities will not have exactly…”

“That is not something that I have had a discussion about.”

“The other thing to say, of course, is that the more requirements we put in, the more cost we put into the system. That has consequences, does it not? We know that a lot of people rely on taxis and private hire vehicles, particularly people who perhaps cannot afford a car of their own, or disabled people who would not b…”

“I am the Minister for Local Transport.”

“I do not think so. We are quite open to looking at the views that people want to put forward.”

“Certainly, I met with Wolverhampton very recently. I cannot remember whether it was just before Christmas or just after.”

“Frankly, it was rather reluctant about the role it had ended up with. I do not think it was ever the intention to become the go-to licensing authority, and it does not have any choice. If someone turns up at Wolverhampton, asks to be licensed and meets the standards, they will be licensed there. There is a bit of a myt…”

“Thanks, Chair, I am really glad to be here having this discussion. I want to see the sector better regulated, and the public to have a range of services that they can be confident are safe, accessible, available and affordable, whether that is in a taxi or a private hire vehicle. It is absolutely clear to everyone that…”

“I am open to considering that. The concerns that we have are as Liz and I have set out, but we are certainly not averse to looking at those sorts of ideas.”