Public Service vehicle licences (FOI)

​​​Request​​

​On 7 January 2016, the Minister for Infrastructure made a Ministerial Decision (MD-T-2016-0001) delegating certain of his functions under Article 28 of the States of Jersey Law 2005, as per the Scheme of Delegation presented to the States on 12 January 2016 by the Minister for Infrastructure. 

An extract is attached relating to the Delegation of Powers for "Granting Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licences and the conditions attached thereto”. This Delegation is subject to the restrictions of Licences being issued according to both the Ministerial Policy and the Minister's approved Standard Conditions of Licence.

For each Category of PSV Licence referred to (Omnibuses, Char-a-Bancs and Taxi Cabs):

A

Please provide a copy of the Minister's approved Policies for granting PSV Licences, as referred to in the Scheme of Delegation of Powers.

B

Please provide a copy of the Minister's approved Standard Conditions of Licence, as referred to in the Scheme of Delegation of Powers.

C

Although not referred to in the Scheme of Delegation, can the Minister also provide a copy of both the Policies for granting Licences for the other PSV Category of Limousine-Cabs and the Standard Conditions of Licence, if any. 

It is presumed that any variation from these Ministerial Policies and / or the Minister's approved Standard Licence Conditions (for each PSV Category) is not a Delegated Power so would require a separate Ministerial Decision on a case by case basis, if that is the case:

D

Please provide copies of any such Ministerial Decisions that have not been published for the last five years.

Response

A

The information requested is partially exempt under Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as some of the requested information is already accessible as detailed below.

The guiding principles for issuing of Public Service Vehicle (PSV) Licences are set out in the Taxi Regulatory Reform White Paper in 2013.  This is published on the States Assembly website and can be accessed using the following link:

Taxi Regulatory Reform – Recommendations (statesassembly.gov.je)​

Any recommended policy changes and subsequent Ministerial Decisions to implement those policies are included in the Freedom of Information response linked below.  This includes a list of the relevant Ministerial Decisions. 

Taxi Reform Programme – further update (FOI)​

The documents referred to above set qualitive control policy for the granting of PSV Licences for Taxi-Cabs.

In terms of quantitative policy, the Taxi Regulatory Reform White Paper, amongst other recommendations, stated that taxi-cab Licence numbers should be allowed to rise slowly over a number of years. In 2017 Deputy Noel agreed with industry that this should be based on unmet demand surveys.

However, since 2020 there has been a surplus of licence plates available to be taken up by either drivers or companies, therefore, no unmet demand surveys have been considered necessary as the supply of plates has continually exceeded demand, as detailed in the Freedom of Information response linked below. Therefore, currently there is effectively no quantitative restriction policy to be considered when issuing Licences.

Taxi-Cab licences and badges issued (FOI)

The Government of Jersey does not hold ministerial policies in relation to the issue of PSV Licences for Omnibuses and Char-a-Bancs, therefore Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies. 

B

The information requested is partially exempt under Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as the information regarding taxi cab licencing conditions is accessible on www.gov.je within the Freedom of Information response linked below.

Taxi-Cab licences and badges issued (FOI)

In relation to both Omnibus and Char-a-Banc Public Service Vehicle licences, these vehicles can only operate in accordance with the articles set out in the Article 9 of the Motor Traffic (Jersey) Law 1935. 

These types of licence are not subject to additional licence conditions. 

Motor Traffic (Jersey) Law 1935 (jerseylaw.je)

C

The Government of Jersey does not hold the requested Ministerial approved policies for granting PSV licence category reference Limousine-Cabs, therefore, Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

However, the standard Limousine-cab licence conditions are attached.

Limousine cab licence conditions.pdf​

Any variations that need to be made to the standard licence conditions would require a separate Ministerial Decision on a case-by-case basis.  

D

All Ministerial Decisions within the past five years in respect of PSV matters have been published on www.gov.je and can be accessed using the following link:

Ministerial Decisions (gov.je)

​Articles applied

Article 10 - Obligation of scheduled public authority to confirm or deny holding Information

(1) Subject to paragraph (2), if –

(a) a person makes a request for information to a scheduled public authority; and

(b) the authority does not hold the information, it must inform the applicant accordingly.

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.​