HC Deb 15 February 1988 vol 127 cc799-806

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Alan Howarth.]

10 pm

Mr. David Amess (Basildon)

When I was first elected, an article described me as a member of the new breed of Conservative taxi driver Members of Parliament. I know that this description was meant as a compliment, and that is what I took it to be. Whether they cut me up in traffic, or ignore me when I hail them, taxis and taxi drivers are an essential part of the British way of life. I am sure that most people at some point have welcomed the assistance of a taxi.

My hon. Friend the Minister felt at first hand the warmth of taxi drivers in Essex when he addressed the annual conference of their association in Basildon last year. He had the task of explaining the details of Government proposals for taxi sharing and so on. My lasting memory of that conference will always be the point at which one person accused my hon. Friend of purchasing his suit from Savile Row, to which he replied that it had been purchased at Marks and Spencer. After that my hon. Friend could do no wrong, and I trust he felt that his visit was more than worth while.

My first point is about taxis and the accommodation that they are able to offer handicapped people. At the moment about 10 per cent. of councils—32 out of 360—grant special licences to taxi owners for vehicles to carry handicapped passengers. Although a licence is not strictly necessary to convert a taxi, there is little or no incentive to make it worth while. The purpose of the specially adapted vehicles is to provide a much needed service for handicapped peope who find it too difficult to use transport facilities.

Following deregulation of the bus services, some rural areas are becoming increasingly isolated, as the routes to and from them are uneconomical to run. This particularly hits handicapped people. I hope that my proposals will fill that gap. In Basildon we have one licensed taxi which is used to transport handicapped people. It has been so successful that two more are to be granted licences in the coming year. Over 500 wheelchair passengers were carried last year, and the response that has been reported by the driver is so great, and the service is so appreciated by disabled people, that he has every confidence that it would be successful if it were enjoyed throughout the country. The scheme works and I should like to see it extended to as many councils as possible.

Will my hon. Friend examine the possibility of setting up a pilot scheme in just one or two councils, under which new hackney licences are not issued except to taxis contracted specifically to handle disabled passengers without their having to leave their wheelchairs? Business would not suffer, as the taxis would be able to take able-bodied passengers as well.

Taxi drivers operating the scheme for the disabled complain that at present they have to book ahead for disabled people. It would be much simpler if more taxis were capable of providing the services on an ad hoc basis. I should add — I am sure that my hon. Friend the Minister will appreciate this — that the scheme I am suggesting would not cost the Government a penny.

It is a case for much sadness and concern about the state of society today when we have to consider the increasing incidence of violence towards property, animals and, most serious of all, people. It seems that life nowadays has somehow become cheap. The incidence of violence is reaching such proportions that although such events are reported daily in our newspapers they gain little or no attention. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary recently delivered an excellent Peel Memorial Lecture speech in which he made some telling points about the increase in violence and to which he posed some possible solutions. Any measures would be taken in the hope of finding a long-term solution to the problems of violence. Of course, my hon. Friend the Minister has to deal with the circumstances with which we have to cope now.

In July last year I asked my hon. Friend the Minister about his policy for protecting taxi and private hire drivers from attacks by passengers. I asked him what measures were planned to increase their safety. My hon. Friend said that he had no reason to believe that it was a serious problem, but that if I had any evidence to the contrary I should give him that information. I have to tell him that I am able to produce evidence that will show clearly that there is a serious problem, and I hope that my hon. Friend will wish to tackle it.

Last year there were 116 attacks on taxi drivers and three taxi drivers were murdered. I wish to tell my hon. Friend the Minister about some of those attacks. In July 1986 there was a report in the Evening Standard with the headline, Minicab driver's gunman ordeal. The article went on: Police were questioning a man today after a minicab driver was forced to drive through London at gun-point. The incident happened just after midnight when the taxi went to an address in Clapham to pick up a passenger who then pulled out a gun. The shabbily-dressed attacker with a scar on his face held the gun at the driver's stomach and forced him to drive to Whitehall. In June 1986 there was a report in the Daily Telegraph about a taxi driver whose throat was cut. It said: A taxi driver had his throat cut from ear to ear by a six foot bearded and bespectacled customer yesterday. Mr. James Sinnot, 40, of Roland Avenue, Runcorn, Cheshire, drove half a mile to hospital with blood gushing from a wound six inches long and three-quarters of an inch deep". The attacker robbed him of just a few pounds and 50 police were involved in the chase after that assailant.

Last year there was a report in the Daily Express of a taxi driver being attacked by a mob. It said that taxi drivers were boycotting one of Britain's worst council estates after a cabbie was attacked by a mob of 25 young people.

The gang on the Stonebridge estate, Harlesden, North London—armed with wooden staves, a crowbar … tried to overturn Paul Samuel's cab after failing to lever open the locked doors". It went on to say that the police were extremely worried about that area, where there were constant outbreaks of violence by up to 200 young people.

We read about a "murder charge" in The Times in August last year, which stated: A youth aged 16 was charged last night with the murder of a minicab driver. Mr. Dudley Young, aged 47, a father of four, was stabbed seven times in the chest and stomach, allegedly during an argument over a fare in south London … The body of Mr. Young … was found after his car had hit a wall. We then learnt the circumstances of the teenager who was charged.

Finally, only this year we have read about a Black cab in foiled bank raid". The article stated: An armed man hired a taxi to act as an unwitting accomplice in a foiled bank raid yesterday. The well-spoken man hired a black taxi in Harley Street, central London, and asked to be driven to the Coutts bank branch at Cavendish Square, Marylebone. There he told the unnamed driver to wait while he 'popped into the bank to pick something up', police said. The man walked into the bank, pulled on a black balaclava and produced a gun … He then asked the driver to take him to Baker Street … 'The cab driver didn't have a clue that anything was afoot', police said. The attacks that I have outlined tonight were extremely serious, and there is reason to believe that such incidents are increasing. Forty-three of the attacks were physical assaults by one or more assailants, 39 attacks involved knives, 12 attacks involved the use of guns, and all the other attacks involved various weapons, for instance, belts, bottles and metal weapons.

Some taxi drivers have resorted to carrying weapons for self-defence. Many admit to carrying weapons. I know that there has been widespread reporting in the press about the use of stun guns. Of course, the taxi drivers understand that the use of such retaliatory weapons is illegal.

My hon. Friend should recognise that, although I have outlined several incidents tonight, we believe that apparently only one in ten incidents of assault are reported because many people cannot he bothered to go through the process of reporting them to the police.

The alarm system that I should like my hon. Friend to consider is the most favoured. It is a floor stud-operated alarm which emits a high-pitched noise and operates the hazard warning lights on any taxi. I understand that strobe or flashing lights would not be permitted, and that a noise alarm would not necessarily be permitted. At the moment, the construction and use regulations of the Transport Act 1985—regulation 37(4)—mean that such alarms can be carried only on vehicles such as buses. I am asking the Government to include taxis as an exempted vehicle under the regulations. What I am suggesting is a modest measure, and I advise my hon. Friend once again that it would not cost the Government any money.

The other day a taxi driver said to me that the violence on the streets was coming into the cabs. That is a shocking indictment of society today. The system that I am suggesting is universal and would be usable by both black taxis and minicabs.

Some drivers feel that even to mention the fitting of alarms is dangerous, as some people will see that taxi drivers are capable of being attacked. They believe that the fact that people would recognise that taxi drivers are carrying money might make them more liable to commit an assault.

I know that when my hon. Friend the Minister addressed the Essex Taxi Association's annual general meeting last year he listened sympathetically to the points that were made by those who attended the meeting. Following the question that I put to him last year, I hope he will agree tonight that I have produced the evidence that, sadly, the incidents of assault are increasing. Taxi drivers, who are recognised by the British people as carrying out a very useful function, deserve our support and our protection. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will support me tonight and give them that protection.

10.15 pm
The Minister for Public Transport (Mr. David Mitchell)

In his typically ebullient way, my hon. Friend the Member for Basildon (Mr. Amess) has raised an important matter which affects the taxi trade. I am very much aware of his keen interest in that trade from his attendance al the meeting in his constituency to which he referred.

My hon. Friend has raised two questions. The first relates to the use of taxis to carry people who are dependent on a wheelchair. As he said, a good deal of progress has been made in London since the assistant commissioner who is responsible for the public carriage office decided in 1985 that any new type of taxi approved for use in London would have to be capable of carrying a wheelchair. I can tell my hon. Friend that the decision was taken partly at least at the suggestion of my Department. The new Metrocab does, as he says, comply with that requirement, and I am happy to say that there are already more than 250 of them operating on the streets of London. I understand that new Metrocabs are coming into service at the rate of about 20 a week. The other manufacturers of London taxis — London Taxis International—are already producing the FX4W which is capable of carrying a wheelchair and I know that this is widely welcomed by people who need to use wheelchairs.

My hon. Friend urges me to go further and take some initiative elsewhere in the country. Here I am afraid I must be rather more cautious. The conditions to be prescribed for taxis outside London are a matter for the district councils which license them, unlike the system which operates in London, and I have, of course, noted the examples which he has quoted of authorities which have made the purchase of a wheelchair-carrying vehicle the condition of issue of new hackney licences. I am by no means sure, however, that that is the right way to proceed in all cases. My hon. Friend has pointed out that such a move would involve no cost to the Government. No doubt he sees that as an attraction. That may be true, but it would certainly involve a cost for the purchaser of a new taxi—perhaps someone who has only just been able to get together the money to set up in business for the first time on his own.

The House should consider whether it is right that in all areas of the country—in small towns and villages, as well as in major cities—any person coming into the trade for the first time should be compelled to buy a relatively expensive London-style taxi equipped to take a wheelchair. They are the only kind of vehicles that are likely to be able to meet that requirement. I would remind my hon. Friend that it is only in a minority of areas that the standard London cab is a prescribed requirement for taxi operation. I believe that we would have to think very carefully before making it a requirement for the country as a whole, especially if the new rule were to be imposed — as it must be — in such a way as to discriminate against new entrants to the trade.

However, in response to the specific suggestions from my hon. Friend that, as an experiment, councils should reserve a couple of licences for taxis with wheelchair facilities, I have to say that I find it an interesting and thoughtful suggestion, but it must be one which local authorities are persuaded to introduce, for they have the power of licensing. It may well be that, either through his connections with the taxi trade or through disabled groups, it will be possible to draw his suggestions to the attention of local authorities who license taxis and hire cars in their areas to the point at which they are prepared to undertake the experiment that my hon. Friend has suggested. Perhaps this is an interesting way forward, and I urge my hon. Friend to pursue it through those two channels.

My hon. Friend has referred to the consequences of deregulation of buses in rural areas. I would by no means accept that deregulation has diminished the supply of bus services to rural areas. In many areas the opposite may be true. My hon. Friend may be surprised to know that in the shire counties 17 per cent. more mileage is being operated by buses since deregulation than before. In any case, if the local authority considers that further buses are required, it has the power to provide those services that it regards as socially necessary. As local authorities have saved just on £40 million of taxpayers' and ratepayers' money, there must be very few places in which they cannot afford to provide further bus services if they are needed.

As this is a debate about taxis, I would like to stress that the 1985 Act did a great deal to open up new ways in which the taxi trade could improve its business by offering new services to the public. I hope that the trade will be more active in future in taking up opportunities, such as taxi sharing, and its new ability to run regular scheduled services, just like a bus, over set routes. I use the opportunity of the debate to express the hope that local authorities will do more to encourage such activities by arranging their tenders for subsidised services by bus or taxi-bus in such a way that they are attractive to the taxi trade. I hope that they will take the opportunity to promote taxi sharing.

One of the things that has most disappointed me since deregulation is the extent to which the taxi trade has not taken up the opportunities offered by the taxi-bus, especially in the area of tendered services and of some of the commercial services. Early-morning and late-night services that do not warrant the running of a full-size bus are ideal for a taxi-bus operation. I blame not only the taxi trade for lacking initiative in taking up opportunities, because very often local authorities have not made it clear, easy and attractive for taxi operators to bid for those contracts.

The other matter raised by my hon. Friend was crime. All hon. Members are concerned about that. The latest figures show that, even though there has been a welcome drop in the level of crime in general, crimes of violence against the person continue to increase. We all know that among the most frequent victims of such crimes are servants of the public who are attacked by vicious, often drunken, hooligans while actually providing the service on which the public relies.

It is fair to say that the Department of Transport has been at the forefront of moves to develop a co-ordinated response to these problems across the whole field. It was one of our initiatives which led to the establishment of a joint committee chaired by the Health and Safety Executive and bringing together representatives of the CBI, the TUC and the Home Office. Its purpose, and that of other Government Departments concerned, is to pool the ideas and experiences of all those who have been involved with problems of violence in different types of work place.

My own Department established a working group on violence to road passenger transport staff which published a report in 1986. The working party has now been converted into the Standing Committee to which my hon. Friend has referred. Its objective is to keep up the pressure on this issue and to ensure that everything possible is done to fight the kind of threat with which bus crews are all too often faced. In the light of what my hon. Friend has said, I should like to take the opportunity offered by the debate to issue an invitation to the taxi trade to be represented on that committee. In view of my hon. Friend's speech and my concern in the light of what he said, I shall tomorrow morning instruct officials to get in touch with the trade to make arrangements for such representation.

My hon. Friend has raised the issue of the green light taxi system which has been developed with the assistance of the East Anglia Federation of Taxi Associations. The problem is that the system incorporates a flashing green light and an audible distress call which, I understand, is designed, when switched on, to be so strong as to make any occupant want to leave the cab immediately.

Mr. Amess

indicated assent.

Mr. Mitchell

My hon. Friend agrees. I understand that it is so effective that there must be real grounds for concern about what the effect might be if, for example, the system were switched on by accident when there was an elderly passenger in the cab. We must think about that.

There are also, I gather, additional sound systems and revolving lights which the driver can fit if he wants. As against all this, the Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations 1984 require lamps on vehicles to show a steady light at all times. There are exemptions in the case of the blue, amber and green beacons which certain emergency vehicles—such as fire engines, ambulances, police cars, doctors' cars and road maintenance vehicles — are authorised to use in an emergency. But the view has always been taken that it is essential to exercise very tight control over the circumstances in which such exemptions can be authorised, otherwise the value of the exemption will be undermined, and vital emergency services will not get the priority that we all recognise that they need.

The question we must ask ourselves is whether the arguments put forward by my hon. Friend are strong enough to justify a further exemption for taxis. Let us remember that we are talking about a completely new system, untried and untested, which has, so far at least, been developed in a small way. The developer has not, as yet, contacted my Department for discussion or submitted his system for testing. I suggest that he does just that. We can then take it from there. I must warn my hon. Friend that we shall take some convincing that the degree of protection which this particular system provides for the taxi driver is really appropriate to justify a further exemption from the regulations.

More constructive is the fact that there are other kinds of systems with which a taxi could be equipped without contravening any regulations. For example, there would be nothing to prevent a taxi from being equipped with a steady light, which could be switched on in an emergency, together with a sign showing a suitable message such as "Help" or "Emergency". Perhaps my hon. Friend would like to explore this kind of solution with his constituents.

We will look sympathetically at any proposals for an alarm system which are put before us. We would very much welcome representation of the taxi trade on the Standing Committee, to which I have already issued an invitation this evening and which is already advising us on the kind of action that can be taken to counter violence against bus staff. It would be helpful to extend its activities to cover criminal violence against taxi drivers and others in the taxi trade.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at twenty-eight minutes past Ten o'clock.