Lists of Accessible Taxis under S167 Equality Act 2010

The request was successful.

Dear Torbay Borough Council,

1) Please advise if you have produced, or currently intend to produce, a list of wheelchair accessible:
a) taxis
and
b) private hire vehicles
under the powers set out in S167 of the Equality Act 2010.

2) Please identify how many a) taxi and b) PHV drivers have applied for medical / physical impairment exemption under S166 of the Equality Act 2010 since S166 was commenced. If you've created a list under S167, please identify how many of the exemptions were in place before S167 and how many have been put in since.

3) Please state whether you voluntarily compiled a list of accessible taxis and private hire vehicles following the Department for Transport's guidance of 15th September 2010, which stated, in relation to section 167, “although the list of designated vehicles will have no actual effect in law until the duties are commenced, we would urge licensing authorities to start maintaining a list as soon as possible for the purpose of liaising with the trade and issuing exemption certificates”. If you did produce such a voluntary list, please indicate when you did so, and provide the current list.

If you have produced a list of wheelchair accessible taxis and/or private hire vehicles under S167, or are going to, please tell me the following.

4) The date the list was instated or by which you intend to do so.

5) The accessibility requirements of a taxi for it to appear on the list.

6) How you intend to enforce drivers' compliance with S165.

7) The list.

Yours faithfully,

Doug Paulley

Freedom of Information, Torbay Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Paulley

 

Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 19 April
2017 . We are currently processing your request and will contact you
within 20 working days.

 

If you have any queries regarding your request, please do not hesitate to
contact us, quoting the reference number above in all communications.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Bee Laithwaite

Information Compliance Support Officer

Torbay Council

Torquay Town Hall

Castle Circus

Torquay

TQ1 3DR

*: [1][email address]

[2]cid:image001.png@01CF5A20.BA7692A0

 

The Information Compliance Team will aim to acknowledge correspondence
within 3 working days unless a restriction is in place.

 

 

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Dear Freedom of Information,

The 20 working days are up;

please can you advise as to the status of my request?

Thank you

Yours sincerely,

Doug Paulley

infocompliance, Torbay Borough Council

Dear Mr Paulley

Thank you for your email.

I am sorry you have not yet received a response. Having looked at our records, we have not yet been provided with a response from the department. This has however been chased and we will respond as soon as this has been received.

I am sorry for any inconvenience.

Yours sincerely

Vicky Wills
Information Compliance Advisor
Torbay Council

Phone: 01803 207467

The Information Compliance Team will aim to acknowledge correspondence within 3 working days unless a restriction is in place.

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Freedom of Information, Torbay Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Paulley

 

Further to your request received on 19 April 2017 I confirm that Torbay
Council has now considered your request under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000.

 

Our response is attached.  Please accept my sincere apologies for the
delay.

 

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your
own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for
the purpose of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial
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Torbay Council publishes Access to Information requests and responses on
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de-personalised accordingly.

 

To view the Council’s Disclosure Log, please visit
[1]www.torbay.gov.uk/disclosurelog

 

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satisfied, you can contact the Information Commissioner direct.

 

Information Commissioner Helpline: 0303 123 1113
01625 545 745
Wycliffe House  
[3][email address]
Water Lane Email:
[4]www.ico.org.uk
Wilmslow Website:

Cheshire SK9 5AF

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Vicky Wills

Information Compliance Advisor

Torbay Council

 

Phone: 01803 207467

 

The Information Compliance Team will aim to acknowledge correspondence
within 3 working days unless a restriction is in place.

 

Please note...
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Dear Torbay Borough Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Torbay Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Lists of Accessible Taxis under S167 Equality Act 2010'.

In response to my request:

"Please advise if you have produced, or currently intend to produce, a list of wheelchair accessible:
a) taxis
and
b) private hire vehicles
under the powers set out in S167 of the Equality Act 2010."

You stated:

"This information can be found on the Torbay Council Website Http://www.torbay.gov.uk/business/licens...

However that list isn't a S167 list.

The DFT's statutory guidance has this to say about S167:

"Whilst LAs are under no specific legal obligation to maintain a list under section 167, the Government recommends strongly that they do so. Without such a list the requirements of section 165 of the Act do not apply, and drivers may continue to refuse the carriage of wheelchair users, fail to provide them with assistance, or to charge them extra."

"Before drivers can be subject to the duties under section 165 of the Act, the LA must first publish their list of designated vehicles, and clearly mark it as ‘designated for the purposes of section 165 of the Act’. LAs should ensure that their designated lists are made easily available to passengers, and that vehicle owners and drivers are made aware. Lists should set out the details of the make and model of the vehicle, together with specifying whether the vehicle is a taxi or private hire vehicle, and stating the name of operator."

Do you have a list clearly marked "designated for the purposes of section 165 of the Act"? Is it published, does it solely list accessible vehicles, does it include the make, model, license type (taxi or PHV) and the name of the operator? If you do then you have a S167 list. If you don't then you don't have such a list. The list you supplied in response does not appear to comply with the obligations set out in the guidance.

Your response to Q3 doesn't make sense. You state that you haven't compiled a "voluntary list" - yet you have supplied a list that isn't a S167 list so you evidently did produce a voluntary list.

Your response to Q4 doesn't make sense. Q3 was about a voluntary list; Q4-6 are about the S167 list. A S167 list is different from a voluntary list. Any list held before 6th April 2017 is a voluntary list, which may or may not have been converted into a S167 list after 6th April 2017, depending on whether it meets the above requirements (being clearly marked 'designated for the purposes of section 165 of the Act' and so on.)

If you have a S167 list then please respond to my question as to when you implemented it with the date that it was instated. If you don't have a S167 list, please indicate whether you intend to have one and if so by when.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...

Yours faithfully,

Doug Paulley

Torbay Council, Torbay Borough Council

Reference: 283011
 
Dear Mr Paulley
 
Case 283011
 
Thank you for your emailreceived on 24 May 2017.
 
As a result of your complaint we will be carrying out an internal review.

An officer, not involved in the original case, will reconsider your
request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and
notify you of their decision by 21 June 2017. If it is not possible for us
to reply by this date, we will write to you and inform you of the date you
can expect your reply and the reason for the delay.
 
Should you not hear from us when you expect, or have any queries, please
do not hesitate to contact us.
 
Yours sincerely

Bee Laithwaite
Information Compliance Support Officer
Torbay Council
* Torquay Town Hall, Castle Circus, Torquay, TQ1 3DR
 

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Dear Torbay Council,

What is happening with this internal review please? You've had it for nearly 4 weeks.

Yours sincerely,

Doug Paulley

Dear Torbay Council,

I have contacted the ICO to ask them to conduct an assessment in the following terms.

Dear ICO,

Please conduct a S50 assessment of this request:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...

The information they provided is not the information I requested; and
they haven't carried out an internal review.

You have previously investigated their failure to respond to my FOI
request; your reference FS50684123

Thank you

Doug Paulley

Yours sincerely,

Doug Paulley

Torbay Council, Torbay Borough Council

Reference: 283011
 
Dear Mr Paulley
 
Case 283011
 
Thank you for your email received 21 June 2017.

I am sorry you have not yet received a response to your internal review. I
have emailed the officer dealing with your complaint and asked them to let
you know if there is going to be any further delay.
 
Yours sincerely

Vicky Wills
Information Compliance Advisor
Torbay Council
 
(01803 207467
* Town Hall, Castle Circus, Torquay, TQ1 3DS
 

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Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[1][FOI #402119 email]

 

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Torbay Council, Torbay Borough Council

Reference: 283011
 
Dear Mr Paulley
 
Case 283011
 
Further to my previous email, I have received an out of office response
from the relevant officer who is currently away from the office. She is
due to return on 27 June 2017.
 
Yours sincerely

Vicky Wills
Information Compliance Advisor
Torbay Council
 
(01803 207467
* Town Hall, Castle Circus, Torquay, TQ1 3DS
 

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Torbay Council, Torbay Borough Council

Reference: 283011
 
Dear Mr Paulley
 
Case 283011
 
Thank you for your email advising that you have contacted the ICO.
We will await contact from them.
 
Yours sincerely

Vicky Wills
Information Compliance Advisor
Torbay Council
 
(01803 207467
* Town Hall, Castle Circus, Torquay, TQ1 3DS
 

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Goodwin, Samantha, Torbay Borough Council

Reference: 283011

 

Dear Mr Paulley

 

Case 283011

 

Further to your complaint received on 24 May 2017 I have been asked to
undertake a review of the response to your request for information under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000 request ref. 17180112.  Please accept
my apologies for the delay in responding to you.

 

I have reviewed your request and the information that you were provided
and can see that the response is confusing.

 

To clarify – the lists held by the Authority and found on the Torbay
Council website (for which you were provided access links) are not s167
lists.  Further, whilst voluntary they were not compiled following the
DFT’s guidance of 15 September 2010.

 

It is therefore accepted that the links should not have been provided to
you under question 1 or indeed question 3 albeit that the response to
question 3 is correct.

 

Further the Authority need not have provided answers to your questions
numbered 4 – 7. 

 

For clarification I can advise you that we do not intend to produce a
s.167 list and our lists have been updated to make it clear that they are
not s.167 lists.

 

In light of the above I will uphold your complaint.  Please accept my
apologies for any confusion caused.

If you remain unhappy with the outcome of your internal review, you are
entitled to refer your complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office
(ICO) for a decision.

The ICO can be contacted at: 

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF or [1]www.ico.org.uk

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Samantha Goodwin,

Senior Lawyer

 

Licensing, Litigation & Insurance Team

 

Torbay Council,

Town Hall, Castle Circus ,Torquay, TQ1 3DS

DX 59006 Torquay

 

Tel: 01803 207164

Fax: 01803 207042

e-mail: [2][email address]

 

This email and any attachments are intended solely for the use of the
intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information and/or may
be legally privileged. If you have received this email in error, please
notify the sender immediately and delete this email.  

 

 

Please note...
Communications with Torbay Council may be monitored and/or recorded for
lawful purposes. This email is confidential and may also be privileged. If
you are not the intended recipient please notify the sender and delete the
message from your system immediately. The views in this message are
personal; they are not necessarily those of Torbay Council.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
2. mailto:[email address]