Unbelievably, baroness Kramer has come out in support of a relaxation in Taxi and Private Hire laws, that were put in place to protect public safety.
![]()
In most of the UK, only the licensee can drive a licensed minicab. But here in London a minicab driver can lend his vehicle to anyone. This has seen Cab related serious sexual assaults including rape statistics go through the roof.
Transport Minister Baroness Kramer said: "The Deregulation Bill will not put taxi passengers at risk and drivers will continue to have their backgrounds routinely checked. Councils will have strong tools to assess drivers’ and operators’ suitability and to carry out enforcement activity.
As London Taxi drivers know, proper enforcement from our licensing authority (TfL) is virtually non existent
Baroness Kramer is hailing "the London experiment" has been a huge success. Unfortunately she is grossly mistaken.
There have been many minicab-related sexual assaults across Britain in the last year including places such as Cardiff, Birmingham and Nottingham, but nothing on the scale of Central London.
Last year, there were 37 serious sexual assaults, including rapes, in Manchester. But In London there were 71 just between April and November, considered by many as the quiet months, before the storm of the Christmas party season.
The Met Police have emphasised in the PoP report (Clapham), that figures given for minicab related sexual assaults only show those cases which were recorded as cab related sex crimes to police. In their opinion, these statistics relate to just 10% of actual assaults, as 90% of victims fail to report.
Taken these statistic as a whole, it would show that between April and November 2013, there were over 700 serious sexual assaults including rapes, carried out by sexual predators in minicabs.
This should have been a stark warning to the Baroness that, instead if relaxing the rules to make it easier for predators to find fresh victims, she should be looking to strengthening the conditions of fitness needed to obtain a PH licence. Public safety should always come before quick profit.
The Baroness's present stance will open the door to ride sharing apps such as Lyft. Already in trouble in the US for the amount of customer complaints against drivers.
See also this video from yesterday's Sky News.
In most of the UK, only the licensee can drive a licensed minicab. But here in London a minicab driver can lend his vehicle to anyone. This has seen Cab related serious sexual assaults including rape statistics go through the roof.
Transport Minister Baroness Kramer said: "The Deregulation Bill will not put taxi passengers at risk and drivers will continue to have their backgrounds routinely checked. Councils will have strong tools to assess drivers’ and operators’ suitability and to carry out enforcement activity.
As London Taxi drivers know, proper enforcement from our licensing authority (TfL) is virtually non existent
Baroness Kramer is hailing "the London experiment" has been a huge success. Unfortunately she is grossly mistaken.
There have been many minicab-related sexual assaults across Britain in the last year including places such as Cardiff, Birmingham and Nottingham, but nothing on the scale of Central London.
Last year, there were 37 serious sexual assaults, including rapes, in Manchester. But In London there were 71 just between April and November, considered by many as the quiet months, before the storm of the Christmas party season.
The Met Police have emphasised in the PoP report (Clapham), that figures given for minicab related sexual assaults only show those cases which were recorded as cab related sex crimes to police. In their opinion, these statistics relate to just 10% of actual assaults, as 90% of victims fail to report.
Taken these statistic as a whole, it would show that between April and November 2013, there were over 700 serious sexual assaults including rapes, carried out by sexual predators in minicabs.
This should have been a stark warning to the Baroness that, instead if relaxing the rules to make it easier for predators to find fresh victims, she should be looking to strengthening the conditions of fitness needed to obtain a PH licence. Public safety should always come before quick profit.
The Baroness's present stance will open the door to ride sharing apps such as Lyft. Already in trouble in the US for the amount of customer complaints against drivers.
See also this video from yesterday's Sky News.
Sky video
There are concerns over proposals to allow mini-cab drivers to loan their private taxis to family and friends when they are off duty. Sky's Anushka Asthana reports
