Agenda and minutes

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business on the agenda.

Members were asked to declare any interests they might have in the business on the agenda.  No such declarations were made.

To note the membership of the Committee for the 2015/16 municipal year.

Councillor Thomas – Chair

Councillor Byrne – Vice-Chair

Councillor Cank – Vive Chair

Councillor Dr Barton

Councillor Fonseca

Councillor Hunter

Councillor Sangster

Councillor Singh Johal

Councillor Westley

1 unallocated Non-Grouped Place.

The Committee noted the membership of the Committee for the 2015/16 municipal year as follows:-

Councillor Thomas – Chair

Councillor Byrne – Vice-Chair

Councillor Cank – Vive Chair

Councillor Dr Barton

Councillor Fonseca

Councillor Hunter

Councillor Sangster

Councillor Singh Johal

Councillor Westley

1 unallocated Non-Grouped Place.

To note that meetings of the Committee will be held on the following dates during the municipal year 2015/16:-

Tuesday 25 August 2015

Tuesday 27 October 2015

Tuesday 26 January 2016

Tuesday 26 April 2016

All meetings are scheduled to take place at 5.30pm in Meeting Room G01 at City Hall.

It was noted that meetings of the Committee will be held on the following dates during the municipal year 2015/16:-

Tuesday 25 August 2015

Tuesday 27 October 2015

Tuesday 26 January 2016

Tuesday 26 April 2016

All meetings are scheduled to take place at 5.30pm in Meeting Room G01 at City Hall.

To note the Terms of Reference for the Committee and its Sub-Committees as approved by the Council at its meeting on 18 June 2015.

The Terms of Reference for the Committee and its Sub-Committees as approved by the Council at its meeting on 18 June 2015 were noted.

The minutes of the meetings held on 5 January 2015 and 2 March 2015 have been circulated and the Committee will be asked to confirm them as a correct record.  (Note - the minutes of the 5 January Meeting require confirmation as the subsequent meeting held 2 March was no quorate).

The minutes can be found on the Council’s website at the following link:-

5 January 2015

http://www.cabinet.leicester.gov.uk:8071/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=784&MId=6589&Ver=4

2 March 2015

http://www.cabinet.leicester.gov.uk:8071/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=784&MId=6590&Ver=4

RESOLVED:

that the minutes of the meeting held on 5 January 2015 and 2 March 2015 be approved as a correct record, subject to Councillor Byrne’s apologies being added to the minutes of the meeting held on 2 March 2015.

The Monitoring Officer to report on the receipt of any petitions submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

The Monitoring Officer reported that no petitions had been submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

The Monitoring Officer to report on the receipt of any questions, representations and statements of case submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

The Monitoring Officer reported that no questions, representations and statements of case had been submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

The Director of Local Services and Enforcement submits a report on the proposed Licensing Act Policy for February 2016 to February 2021. 

Consultation responses will be analysed prior to Council being asked to adopt the Policy in November 2105.

The Committee is asked to provide comments on the proposed policy and the special policy on cumulative impact to assist Council when it considers the proposed policy.

The Director of Local Services and Enforcement submitted a report on the proposed Licensing Act Policy for February 2016 to February 2021. 

Consultation responses were currently being analysed and would be submitted to Council when it was asked to adopt the Policy in November 2015.

The Committee were asked to provide comments on the proposed policy and the special policy on cumulative impact to assist Council when it considered the proposed policy.

The Licensing Team Manager stated that the current Policy would expire in February 2016.  The consultation period had now ended and 16 responses had been received; 10 from residents, 2 from licence holders, 2 from responsible authorities and 2 others.  There were currently four Cumulative Impact Zones within the policy and it was not proposed to change the areas of the zones or to change the number of zones.  6 responses contained comment relating to the CIZs, but none of these contained adverse comments.

Members commented that they would like to receive the responses to the consultation in order to better inform any comments and observations they may wish to make on the Policy.  They felt this would give better feedback to officers on the Policy.  They also commented that they would have liked to have seen the consultation document included with the report.

Following questions from Members, it was stated that:-

a)         The risk assessments mentioned in paragraph 7.13 of the Draft Statement of Policy would be carried out by the licence holders.

b)         The steps to prevent crowd disorder at boxing events had been requested by the Police following a number of previous incidents at boxing events in Leicester and Leicestershire.  It was noted that these incidents had not related to professional promoted events.

c)         Officers were pro-active and gave advice to off-licences where customers were standing in the vicinity of the premises and causing problems through on-street drinking.  Officers requested Members to let them have details of premises where they had concerns to enable officers to investigate and take appropriate action.

The Head of Licensing and Pollution Control stated that in relation to Members comments about the seeing the responses to the consultation, the intention in submitted the report had been to consult the Committee as part of the consultation process.  The responses to the consultation would be circulated to Members.

RESOLVED:

That the responses to the consultation be submitted to the next meeting of the Committee to enable Members to give comments on the Draft Licensing Statement of Policy, prior to it being submitted to the Council Meeting in November for adoption.

The Director of Local Services and Enforcement submits a report on the review of the Gambling Act Policy which is required to be published no later than 3 January 2016 (4 weeks before the new policy takes effect).  The new policy will be in force for three years from 2016 to 2019.

Consultation responses will be analysed prior to Council being asked to adopt the Policy in November 2105.

The Committee is asked to provide comments on the proposed policy to assist Council when it considers the proposed policy.

The Director of Local Services and Enforcement submitted a report on the review of the Gambling Act Policy which was required to be published no later than 3 January 2016 (4 weeks before the new policy takes effect).  The new policy would be in force for three years from 2016 to 2019.

Consultation responses were currently being analysed and would be submitted to Council when it was asked to adopt the Policy in November 2105.

The Committee was asked to provide comments on the proposed policy to assist Council when it considered the proposed policy.

The Licensing Team Manager stated that the current Policy would expire in February 2016. The consultation period had now ended and 6 responses had been received; 2 from licence holders, 3 from residents and I from a business. 

The Head of Licensing and Pollution Control stated that the Gambling Commission had suggested that local authorities should develop a Local Area Profile to draw data about risk from a number of bodies, including responsible authorities under the Gambling Act 2005 to assist applicants in submitting any applications.  The compilation of the Profile is not compulsory but authorities that don’t produce a Profile are encouraged to include what they would expect local operators to include in the premises risk assessments that they were required to produce.  It was suggested that a Local Area Profile be produced for Leicester which would then be available on the Council’s website for existing and new applicants to determine what steps they needed to take to mitigate risk and promote the licensing objectives.

Members commented that they would like to receive the responses to the consultation in order to better inform any comments and observations they may wish to make on the Policy. They felt this would give better feedback to officers on the Policy. They also commented that they would have liked to have seen the consultation document included with the report.

Following questions from Members, it was stated that:-

a)         The three licensing objectives would not allow licensing authorities to take any action over incidents of racial abuse by customers in a gambling establishment.  However, operators of gambling establishment would have their own equal opportunities statements for staff and customers.  Anyone subjected to racial abuse would have legal recourse to action outside of the licensing regime.

b)         The Government had recently rejected requests arising from the London Borough of Newham’s campaign to reduce the maximum bet per spin on fixed odds betting terminals in high street betting shops from £100 to £2.  The Government were, however, intending to give local authorities additional planning powers to assist local authorities in preventing betting premises being located in inappropriate locations.  Details of the proposals were not fully developed but it was felt that the creation of local area profiles would allow local authorities to control betting premises in a similar way to the use of Cumulative Impact Zones for premises selling alcohol.  It may be possible to indicate that location near places of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Director of Local Services and Enforcement submits a report on a proposal to introduce mandatory Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) awareness briefings for hackney carriage and private hire vehicle drivers.

The Committee is asked to give its views on the proposal which will be reported to the Assistant City Mayor with responsibility for licensing before deciding on the policy to be adopted.

The Director of Local Services and Enforcement submitted a report on a proposal to introduce mandatory Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) awareness briefings for hackney carriage and private hire vehicle drivers.

The Committee was asked to give its views on the proposal which would be reported to the Assistant City Mayor with responsibility for licensing before deciding on the policy to be adopted.

The Head of Licensing and Pollution Control stated that following national concerns on CSE issues, the Council were looking at various actions which could be taken to prevent CSE in Leicester.  240 of the 1900 licensed drives in Leicester had already received briefings from the Council’s Passenger Transport Services as they worked on school transport contracts.  It was proposed that the remainder would receive the briefings in the next 12 months.  Drivers would be expected to undertake the training within 3 months of being granted a new licence or the renewal of an existing licence. Failure to attend the briefing within 3 months would result in the licence being suspended.  Training would be held on a monthly basis to give driver a choice of dates.  Existing licence holders would receive their training free of charge but the fee for new driver applications would be increased by £20 to cover the cost of training.

Consultations had been carried out with all hackney carriage and private hire drivers and operator licence holders.  Responses had been mixed as to whether the training should be compulsory.

A number of comments had been received requesting training on dealing with inebriated passengers, non-paying passengers, flimping, legal requirements and domestic violence.  Officers felt that the focus of the training should remain on CSE issues and not be diluted with other topics.

Members commented that they would like to receive the responses to the consultation in order to better inform any comments and observations they may wish to make on the proposal. They felt this would give better feedback to officers on the Policy.

The Head of Licensing and Pollution Control stated that in relation to Members comments about the seeing the responses to the consultation, the intention in submitting the report had been to consult the Committee as part of the consultation process. The responses to the consultation would be circulated to Members.

Following questions from Members, the following comments were noted:-

a)         The briefings were intended to raise awareness of CSE issues so that drivers could report observations or concerns of situations they had encountered.

b)         Officers were not aware of similar schemes in existence elsewhere.

Members also made the following general observations:-

a)         The proposal to introduce the CSE briefings should be referred for consideration to the Children’s Young People and Schools Scrutiny Commission as they had interests in safeguarding of children arrangements.

b)         There should have been an opportunity for users of hackney carriages and private hire care to comment as part of the consultation process.

c)         Members had the prime responsibility for establishing standards in relation to hackney  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

The Director of Local Services and Enforcement submits a report on a proposal to introduce a policy of issuing hackney carriage and private hire driver’s licences for up to three years’ duration.

The Committee is asked to give its views on the proposal which will be reported to the Assistant City Mayor with responsibility for licensing before deciding on the policy to be adopted.

The Director of Local Services and Enforcement submitted a report on a proposal to introduce a policy of issuing hackney carriage and private hire driver’s licences for up to three years’ duration.

The Committee was asked to give its views on the proposal which would be reported to the Assistant City Mayor with responsibility for licensing before deciding on the policy to be adopted.

The Head of Licensing and Pollution Control stated that consultations had been carried out with all hackney carriage and private hire drivers and operator licence holders and 82% were in favour of the proposal.  The requirement to implement the standard duration of licence for a period of three years, unless there were reasons to justify a shorter period, was contained in the Deregulation Act 2015 which received Royal Assent in March.  The requirement had to be introduced during October.

Following questions from Members, the following comments were noted:-

a)         Discussion were taking place with the Police to improve the system for them to inform the Council when hackney carriage and private hire drivers received convictions for offences.  However, the Police may not know in all circumstance that the persons convicted of offences were licensed hackney carriage and private hire drivers.  Also licensed hackney carriage and private hire drivers could also receive convictions initiated by a Police services elsewhere in the country and there would be no provision for these to be report to the Council.

b)         The scheme was intended to identify those drivers that may drive irresponsibly and the introduction of 2 and 1 year licences for those that have more points on their licences would mean that these drivers would be more closely monitored until they achieved a point where they had sufficient points on their licence to qualify for a three year licence.

Members stated that they had concerns that based upon current experience, drivers would not always inform the Council of new convictions and it could take longer to identify instances where a driver’s licence should be reviewed.  This could have a potential detrimental effect on the current level of standards that had been achieved in recent years.

RESOLVED:

1)         That the proposal to introduce a scheme for issuing licences for up to three year’s duration, as outlined in the report be supported.

2)         That a further report be submitted to a future Committee meeting to review the scheme after it has been in operation for a year.

The Director of Local Services and Enforcement submits a report seeking views on the introduction of a penalty points system for taxi drivers.

The Committee is asked to give its views on the proposal which will be reported to the Assistant City Mayor with responsibility for licensing before deciding on the policy to be adopted.

The Director of Local Services and Enforcement submitted a report seeking views on the introduction of a penalty points system for taxi drivers.

The Committee was asked to give its views on the proposal which would be reported to the Assistant City Mayor with responsibility for licensing before deciding on the policy to be adopted.

The Head of Licensing and Pollution Control stated that there was not a system for dealing with minor misconduct by hackney carriage and private hire drivers.  It was proposed to introduce an administrative penalty point scheme to provide a consistent approach for dealing with unsatisfactory conduct, which would contribute to improve driving standards.  The scheme would run independently of the current scheme of guidelines on criminal convictions, which would continue to operate in its current form.

Consultation had been carried out with hackney carriage and private hire drivers and 70% of responses had been against introducing the scheme.  Some responses had commented upon reducing some of the proposed points for offence/breeches of conditions of licences.

Following questions from members, it was stated that:-

a)         The suggested penalty points had been based upon a mixture observing penalty points in other local authority schemes and producing locally determine penalty points.

b)         The suggested penalty points could be amended now or at some point in the future.

c)         There would be no appeal process to the penalty points issued but officers would conduct interviews with drivers to discuss the circumstances of the offence/breeches of conditions of their licences before imposing the penalty points.

d)         The Law Commissioners had recently confirmed that the different regulation for hackney carriage vehicles and private hire vehicles should remain.  Whilst the frustration of private hire vehicle drivers not being allowed to use bus lanes was recognised, this had to be balanced by the more stringent requirements of hackney carriage vehicles to meet higher specifications including the ability to be wheelchair accessible.

Members made the following comments and observations:-

a)         Failure to wear a driver’s badge had the potential to incur two separate penalty points, once for failure to wear the badge and secondly for this being a breach of the Driver’s Code of Conduct and asked whether this was intentional.

b)         There was a perception that hackney carriage and private hire drivers were treated differently by officers and this perception should not be reinforced by the operation of this scheme.

c)         The following changes should be made to the proposed Penalty Points Schedule contained in the report:-

i)          Providing misleading information on licence application form, or failing to provide relevant information should be 5 points and not 3 as suggested.

ii)         Failure to undertake 6 monthly vehicle examination should be 5 points and not 4 as suggested.

iii)        Failure to notify the Licensing Authority of a conviction should be 5 penalty points and not 4 as suggested.

iv)        Failure to comply with the driver’s code of conduct should be 2 points and not 1 as suggested.

v)         ‘Making false or misleading statement  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

The Chair declared the meeting closed at 7.35 pm