Availability of Wheelchair Accessible Taxis/PHVs

The request was partially successful.

Dear East Hampshire District Council,

WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE TAXIS/PRIVATE HIRE VEHICLES (“WAVs”)-AVAILABILITY
This study is concerned with actual rather than notional availability of wheelchair accessible taxis and PHVs (“WAVs”). Individuals and some organisations can have great difficulty obtaining WAVs when and where required. As a generality, in rural/semi-rural areas or at schooltimes, on some evenings and on Sundays. This seeks to begin to clarify why this occurs and what does and does not work to improve the situation.
1. TAXI STATISTICS : How many a)wheelchair accessible taxis; b) other taxis c) wheelchair accessible phvs d) other phvs do you have licensed? This is to update the 2015 DfT statistics, the 2017 update is due shortly.
2. TAXI POLICY & PUBLIC SECTOR EQUALITY DUTY : FACTORS AFFECTING AVAILABILITY:
Typical factors affecting availability in a given licensing area are:
a) whether individual licensing authorities require a fully or substantially WAV fleet;
b) LA (eg SEN, schools, social care) and NHS (eg goods, staff ,NEPTS etc ) contracts;
c) not making all WAV operators booking/ contact details publically available;
d) operators refusal of prebookings;
e) operators refusal to carry wheelchairs;
f) drivers medical exemptions (wheelchair and assistance dog);
g) significantly more people relative to resident population eg commuters, tourists, passengers in transit;
h) private contracts, driver rest, vehicle repair and maintenance etc;
Please say if and how your taxi policy takes into account each of a)-h) above, or anything else relevant to try to ensure that sufficient WAVs are available to meet demand .*
3. CONTACT INFORMATION:*
To enable further research into accuracy, reliability, consistency and completeness of public and commercial information please provide a list/ spreadsheet/link etc showing the business contact details for all WAV operators with which your authority has dealings (eg as a Licensing Authority or contracting party including for Unitary Authorities, SEN, social services etc. In two-tier authorities please also state the contracting authority).
4. RAIL INDUSTRY : *
To obtain approval by the rail regulator, of their Disabled Persons Protection Policies (“DPPPs”) in order to meet the requirements of their operating licences, station and Train Operating Companies (“TOCs”) should know about WAV availability both for their own needs (rail disruption etc) and to inform passengers.
What arrangements if any have you made to inform them or to ensure that licensed WAV operators do so?
5. INFORMATION FOR TOURISTS , AIR/SEA/RAIL etc PASSENGERS IN TRANSIT ;*
Does your authorities information (including websites & social media) clearly tell the public:
a) the contact details for all WAVs licensed by your authority? If not, why not?; b)if and when WAVS are likely to be hard to obtain?;
c) that TAXI/PHV operators may charge extra etc to carry wheelchairs? (ie unless and until s167 is formally commenced).
6. COMPETITION.
Large authorities responsible for schools/SEN Transport can typically spend around £10m-£11m annually on taxis, including many WAVs .
Have you carried out or collaborated with any value for money studies on this? With what outcome?

Having discussed this matter with the ICO I wish to draw the following to your attention:
1. RE-USE OF INFORMATION PREVIOUSLY SUPPLIED
To minimise duplication I intend to re-use information on wheelchair accessible taxis/PHVs recently provided by your authority to Mr Doug Paulley in response to his Freedom of Information Request. This is for possible use by anyone interested in any way in disability and transport , including government, and is NOT for commercial gain.
2. *If providing the information in exactly the form requested is onerous, but is available in another easier to provide form (eg in a report or printed document) please say so as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully,

Dick Fowler

EHDC - Info Shared, East Hampshire District Council

Dear Fowler

Please DO NOT reply to this email as it was sent from an unattended mailbox

Request for information received on 20/08/2017 13:30.

Reference number FOI-001579

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and/or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and will be answered within 20 working days of receipt of the information request.

For more information about how we deal with Freedom of Information and/or Environmental Information Regulation requests, go to: www.easthants.gov.uk/access-information<http://www.easthants.gov.uk/access-infor...>

Your request details:

EHDC - Info Shared, East Hampshire District Council

Dear Fowler

Please DO NOT reply to this email as it was sent from an unattended mailbox

The Council has requested clarification regarding your FOI/EIR Request FOI-001579. You should receive a separate email with the specific details.

If you do not receive this information within 24 hours and you have checked your junk email folder, please contact the council at: Send Mail<mailto:[email address]>

Remembering to quote the reference number if you contact us about the request.

East Hampshire District Council

EHDC - Info Shared, East Hampshire District Council

Dear Fowler

Please DO NOT reply to this email as it was sent from an unattended mailbox

This is an automatic notification that your FOI/EIR Request FOI-001579 has now been marked as resolved. You should receive a separate email with specific details.

If you do not receive this information within 24 hours and you have checked your junk email folder, please contact the council at:

Send Mail<mailto:[email address]>

Remembering to quote the reference number if you contact us about the request.

East Hampshire District Council

EHDC - Licensing Shared, East Hampshire District Council

Dear Mr. Fowler,

 

Further to your FOIA request below.

 

As of 31 March 2017 EHDC Licenses: 1 wheelchair accessible Hackney
Carriage and 106 wheelchair accessible Private Hire Vehicles.

 

This concludes the response from EHDC.

 

Regards,

C Arm, Licensing Officer, Environmental Health (Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday only).

Direct Tel: 01730 234095

Email: [1][email address]

 

East Hampshire District Council, Penns Place, Petersfield, Hampshire, GU31
4EX

[2]www.easthants.gov.uk

[3]www.facebook.com/EastHampshireDistrictCouncil

[4]www.twitter.com/easthantsdc

 

If you are requesting information from East Hampshire District Council
under the Freedom of Information Act or Environmental Information
Regulations, you can submit and track your request online through a My
East Hampshire District Council account. Go to
[5]https://my.easthants.gov.uk/services/foi... to get started.

 

 

 

From: EHDC - Info Shared
Sent: 21 August 2017 09:22
To: Chris Arm
Subject: FOI/EIR Request Ref: FOI-001579 - You have been recorded as the
Action Officer CRML:00230571

 

This is a notification that a Freedom of Information and/or Environmental
Information Regulations Request with reference number: FOI-001579 has been
assigned to you to coordinate. To access and respond to the request click
on the following link [6]FOI-001579
Request details:

EHDC - Info Shared, East Hampshire District Council

Dear Fowler

Please DO NOT reply to this email as it was sent from an unattended mailbox

This is an automatic notification that your FOI/EIR Request FOI-001579 has now been marked as resolved. You should receive a separate email with specific details.

If you do not receive this information within 24 hours and you have checked your junk email folder, please contact the council at:

Send Mail<mailto:[email address]>

Remembering to quote the reference number if you contact us about the request.

East Hampshire District Council

Dear East Hampshire District Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of East Hampshire District Council's handling of my FOI request 'Availability of Wheelchair Accessible Taxis/PHVs'.

East Hampshire District Council refs FOI 001627 and FOI 001579

The only information I received was an answer to Q1 Statistics and nothing on Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6. We seem to have had some technical problems hence I had to resend the FOI request on 1 September and I had to involve the websites help staff to see if EHDC had supplied more information in an attachment which would not open, but it seems not.

Please refer to my original FOI request and answer Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6. The following may assist:

Q2. This is about factors other than just numbers affecting WAV availability which you may or may not have considered in your taxi/phv policy or as part of your Public Sector Equality Duties (PSED). 2a)-h) were a series of prompts or examples, including SEN and Social Services contracts, medical exemptions and provision of contact phone numbers or apps to facilitate booking.
Please state clearly whether you have done anything to improve or worsen WAV taxi /PHV availability. If so, what? Separately, I am asking Hampshire CC for lists etc of schools/SEN and Social services WAV taxi /phv contracts , together with the business contact details, preferably phone numbers . I need to see how many WAVs are occupied on council contracts a key times and so are not available for other wheelchair users. Also, I believe that EHDC may use taxis as part of a demand-responsive transport arrangement but how many and whether WAVs is unknown.

Q3. Contact Information . This is about WAV Taxi/PHV business contact information which you hold. Whether this business contact information is made public is addressed separately at question 5a. A key part of my study is to compare contact information from LAs, which should be reliable and up to date, with commercial sources which often are not, with many defunct or wrong entries .
I looked at your taxi/phv registers online and I also examined EHCCs taxi etc application forms which clearly request contact information and proprietors/operators names so you clearly hold some of the information for both taxis and PHVs.
I discussed this with the Information Commissioners Office .What is required please is to state whether the information regarding the WAVs is held or not, then either supply the information and/or state whether you are refusing to supply a) some of it or b) all of it , and on what specific exemptions you are relying.

Some LAs withhold contact information citing the Data Protection Act , or more specifically, s40 DPA , the personal data exemption. However, the basis for this is somewhat confused. Some LAs appear to be withholding information where the data subject is not a named individual but an employee of a business, or is working under a business name. For example, several WAVs licensed by the same person is generally an indicator that the vehicles would be identified by a business name (eg Coastal Cabs) , not the personal name. A personal name could be omitted or redacted.

Please also bear in mind that most taxi and phv operators openly publicise contact details variously on vehicles, on business cards, on commercial lists or websites and on social media. A key part of my study is to compare contact information from LAs, which should be reliable and up to date, with commercial sources which often are not, with many defunct or wrong entries on commercial listings.

Q4 is about Taxis and railway stations

Q5c is about s167 of the Equality Act 2010.

Q6 is about value for money studies .

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

Yours faithfully,

Dick Fowler

Kim Amey, East Hampshire District Council

Ref FOI-001579 & FOI-001627

Dear Mr Fowler

The Senior Licensing Officer has reviewed our response, see below. Please accept our apologies that a full response was not provided initially.

Question 1: 1 HC WAV, 99 other HC’s, 106 PHV’s WAV, 128 other PHV’s.

Question 2: The Hackney Carriage and Private Policy does not take into account a – h. Reference to wheelchair accessible vehicles can be found in sections 13.3 and 13.4 of the policy. This can be accessed via http://www.easthants.gov.uk/sites/defaul....

Question 3: WAV operators:

A to B cars, Deale House, 16B Lavant Street, Petersfield, Hampshire, GU32 3EW, Tel: 01730 233299
Wheeldrive Ltd, Unit 15 Liss Business Centre, Station Road, Liss, Hampshire, GU33 7AW, Tel 01730 892052
AMK Chauffeur Drive Ltd, Mill Lane, Passfied, Liphook, GU30 7RP, Tel 01428 751675
Cresta Coaches, Address not being provided as personal data under Section 40(2) FOI Act 2000 and would be unfair and contravene the first principle of the Data Protection Act.
Paddy Cars Ltd, South Down House, 62 Station Road, Petersfield, GU32 3ET, Tel 01730 263263

Question 4: Information not held. Note, taxis using the rank at Petersfield Railway Station must have a permit with Stagecoach South Western Trains Ltd.

Question 5 a: No, the local authority does not maintain a list of vehicles under S167 of the Equality Act 2010.
Question 5 b & c: No

Question 6: Information not held, EHDC is not a ‘large authority responsible for schools/SEN Transport’, this is the remit of Hampshire County Council.

We have put the request for an internal review on hold, pending your review of our full response.

If you require any further assistance regarding your request please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do my best to provide relevant help and advice.

Yours sincerely

Kim Amey
Governance and Information Officer
02392 446431

Havant Borough Council East Hampshire District Council
Public Service Plaza Penns Place
Civic Centre Road Havant PO9 2AX Petersfield GU31 4EX
www.havant.gov.uk www.easthants.gov.uk
www.facebook.com/havantboroughcouncil www.facebook.com/easthampshiredistrictco...
www.twitter.com/havantborough www.twitter.com/easthantsdc

Please note my working days are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

show quoted sections

Kim Amey, East Hampshire District Council

Ref FOI-001579 & FOI-001627

Dear Mr Fowler

The Senior Licensing Officer has reviewed our response, see below. Please accept our apologies that a full response was not provided initially.

Question 1: 1 HC WAV, 99 other HC’s, 106 PHV’s WAV, 128 other PHV’s.

Question 2: The Hackney Carriage and Private Policy does not take into account a – h. Reference to wheelchair accessible vehicles can be found in sections 13.3 and 13.4 of the policy. This can be accessed via http://www.easthants.gov.uk/sites/defaul....

Question 3: WAV operators:

A to B cars, Deale House, 16B Lavant Street, Petersfield, Hampshire, GU32 3EW, Tel: 01730 233299
Wheeldrive Ltd, Unit 15 Liss Business Centre, Station Road, Liss, Hampshire, GU33 7AW, Tel 01730 892052
AMK Chauffeur Drive Ltd, Mill Lane, Passfied, Liphook, GU30 7RP, Tel 01428 751675
Cresta Coaches, Address not being provided as personal data under Section 40(2) FOI Act 2000 and would be unfair and contravene the first principle of the Data Protection Act.
Paddy Cars Ltd, South Down House, 62 Station Road, Petersfield, GU32 3ET, Tel 01730 263263

Question 4: Information not held. Note, taxis using the rank at Petersfield Railway Station must have a permit with Stagecoach South Western Trains Ltd.

Question 5 a: No, the local authority does not maintain a list of vehicles under S167 of the Equality Act 2010.
Question 5 b & c: No

Question 6: Information not held, EHDC is not a ‘large authority responsible for schools/SEN Transport’, this is the remit of Hampshire County Council.

We have put the request for an internal review on hold, pending your review of our full response.

If you require any further assistance regarding your request please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do my best to provide relevant help and advice.

Yours sincerely

Kim Amey
Governance and Information Officer
02392 446431

Havant Borough Council East Hampshire District Council
Public Service Plaza Penns Place
Civic Centre Road Havant PO9 2AX Petersfield GU31 4EX
www.havant.gov.uk www.easthants.gov.uk
www.facebook.com/havantboroughcouncil www.facebook.com/easthampshiredistrictco...
www.twitter.com/havantborough www.twitter.com/easthantsdc

Please note my working days are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

show quoted sections