Hackney carriage or private hire driver's licence

Before a licence is granted the applicant must satisfy the council by showing that:

• they have held a full driver’s licence (not a provisional licence) granted to the applicant under Part III of the Road Traffic Act 1972 authorising them to drive a motor car for at least two years prior to the date of the application
• they pass the local area knowledge, reading, writing and maths tests set by West Lindsey District Council
• they are a fit and proper person to hold a licence
• they are medically fit
• they pass a police criminality check carried out by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) to ensure safety to the public
• they undertake e-learning training in Safeguarding, Exploitation and Modern Slavery
• they attend a driving assessment with Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership and be deemed ‘low risk’ if they have 6 or more live points on their DVLA driving licence

Knowledge Test

All new applicants are required to firstly undertake a Knowledge Test (of the West Lindsey district). The paper also tests reading, writing and maths and is available to sit at our Gainsborough office. You must bring to the appointment: your driving licence (showing your current address), an acceptable document for a Right to a Licence Check and the fee (card/cheque only)

To request an appointment for a knowledge test please contact us via the details at the end of this page.

Application

Applicants who pass the test will then receive a full set of application forms and need to provide the following to submit their application:

• completed application form, including DVLA check code
• medical form completed by your doctor*
• DVLA Driving Licence showing your current address
• current passport or birth certificate
• two utility bills, can include a bank statement (mobile phone bill not acceptable)
• one recent, colour passport-sized photograph
• safeguarding e-learning certificates as specified in the application form
• the current business licence fee

*The medical form can be submitted at a later date but is required to complete your application. Please note the fee paid by you to your GP is non-refundable.

Please check our convictions policy and general policy before applying.

Upon production of your forms at reception, original ID documents will be copied by a member of staff and forms/photo taken, along with the fee.

If you wish to send your original documents by post we recommend sending them through a tracked delivery service.

Right to Work Checks

The Immigration Act 2016 requires us to check every applicant’s right to work in the UK which may include checking immigration statuses with the Home Office. All applicants must therefore provide a document or document combination for this check. The list of documents can be found on the last two pages of our application form, available in the Downloads section of this page. The right to a licence check will be conducted by us at a face to face meeting with the applicant. We will need to see the original document(s), such as a passport so that the check can take place. We will retain copies of any documents produced for checking.

Where an applicant has restrictions on the length of time they may work in the UK we cannot issue a licence for any longer than this period. In these circumstances the right to a licence check will be repeated each time you apply to renew or extend your licence.

Note: EEA citizens and their family members are required to have immigration status in the UK. You can no longer rely on an EEA passport or national identity card to prove your right to work.

Tax Checks

From 4 April 2022 all new applicants need to read HMRC's guidance about tax responsibilities and confirm awareness of it by completing the declaration within our application form. Existing drivers who apply to renew their licence will need to complete a tax check online and provide us their check code within the application form.

Refusals, revocations and suspensions

West Lindsey District Council provides information to the National Register of Taxi Licence Refusals, Revocations and Suspensions (NR3S). This is a national database for licensing authorities to share details of individuals who have had a hackney carriage/private hire driver licence revoked or suspended, or an application for one refused.

This is in line with the statutory standards published by the Department for Transport. For full details on our use of this system please see our PDF document NR3S information and FAQs [pdf / 92 KB] in the downloads section of this page.

Registers

Licensing registers are available to view using the following link.

Public Register