Taxi Licensing privacy notice

This Privacy Notice explains how Coventry City Council's Taxi Licensing Office will collect, use and share your personal information. 

What information we collect about you 

We collect the following information when you complete our forms as part of a taxi licence application or from third parties. 

  • Name, contact details, national insurance number
  • Vehicle details to include; history of purchase, start and expiry date of a licence, vehicle plate number, vehicle registration number, whether vehicle is private hire or hackney carriage, whether vehicle is wheelchair accessible
  • Medical details  
  • Criminal record details  
  • Immigration status and duration in and out of the UK  
  • Right to work details 
  • Photograph and date of birth 
  • Past address and taxi trade history 
  • Information about your health from your GP 
  • Driving licence details 
  • Reference details 
  • Name of drivers authorised to drive a licensed vehicle 
  • Private hire business details including staff details 
  • Driver, vehicle and operator insurance details  
  • Driver, wheelchair and driver training day test results and  
  • Complaints history including committee and court reports 

Why we need information about you 

We process personal data because it is necessary to comply with our legal obligations. The laws include: 

  • Local Government (Miscellaneous) Provisions Act 1976 
  • Town Police Clauses Act 1847 & 1889 
  • Transport Act 1985, 1991  
  • Equality Act 2010  
  • Criminal Justice & Public Order Act 1994  
  • Immigration Act 2016 
  • Deregulation Act 2015  
  • The Air Quality (Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles Database) England Wales Regulations 2019

We collect the information so that we can 

  • Process your request for a hackney carriage/private hire driver’s licence, private hire operator licence or a hackney carriage or private hire vehicle licence 
  • Make sure you are ‘fit and proper’ to hold a licence 
  • Make sure the public is safe 
  • Protect public funds 

Who we share data with  

 Your personal information can be shared with  

  • Other local authorities  
  • Enforcement organisations including but not limited to the police 
  • Insurance companies  
  • Secretary of State
  • Legal/medical practitioners who work in connection with legal/medical proceedings or enquiries if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that you are acting in a criminal or fraudulent way or bring into question the safety and/or protection of the public.  
  • The Cabinet Office (who are a government department) - for the purposes of a data matching exercise called the National Fraud Initiative. The purpose of the exercise is to detect fraud and error. The Council is legally required to participate in this exercise.  Find out more information on the National Fraud Initiative on the Council's website.
  • The Local Government Association (LGA), the representative body for local councils, has commissioned a new National Register of Refusals and Revocations (NR3) hosted by the National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN).  This register is to prevent applicant drivers dishonestly securing a licence without disclosing their previous history. 
  • The information recorded on the NR3 Register is limited to; name, date of birth, address and contact details, national insurance number, driving licence number, decision taken, date of decision and effective date of decision.  This data will not go back beyond 11 years.
  • All the information recorded and access to it will be undertaken in accordance with the Data Protection Act (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and you have the right to access your data; the right to rectification or erasure of your data; the right to restrict processing of your data, and the right to object to the processing of your data for this purpose.  The authority will consider any such requests and respond within one month. 
  • If you wish to raise any issue related to the data protection legislation you can do so by contacting the Data Protection Office at Coventry City Council (infogov@coventry.gov.uk ).  You always have a right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office. 
  • If a refusal or revocation decision is under appeal, then on a successful decision to overturn the refusal/revocation at the Magistrates’/Crown Court your details will be removed, unless the appeal process is still ongoing.
  • Private hire operator details including name, business address and telephone number, start and end date of their licence, licence number will be published on Coventry City Council's website. 

How long we keep your information for 

We only keep information for as long as we need it for the purposes for which it was processed. Your information will be kept for 6 years.  

Your rights 

You have the right to: 

  1. Ask for a copy of information held about you 
  2. Correct any wrong information about you 
  3. Have information that is not needed erased 
  4. Restrict, in some cases, how we use your information 
  5. Complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office  

To exercise any of these rights please contact:  

Taxi Licensing Office 
Whitley Depot 
London Road Coventry, CV3 4AR 
Email. taxi.licensing@coventry.gov.uk 
Phone. 024 7683 2183 

Complaints 

You have the right to submit a complaint if you are unhappy with the way your request is handled or disagree with a decision made. You can do this by contacting the Data Protection Officer (DPO) at  DPOTeam@coventry.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with any outcome from the DPO you may wish to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office at: 

The Information Commissioner's Office,  
Wycliffe House,  
Water Lane, 
Wilmslow, 
Cheshire, 
SK9 5AF 

View a print version