Hackney carriage and private hire driver licence renewal
Hackney carriage and private hire driver licences allow you to drive a licensed vehicle. The holder of a West Northamptonshire licence is considered a professional driver and should always demonstrate high professional standards.
If you want to be licensed with us, you can apply to be:
- a private hire vehicle driver only
or - a dual hackney carriage and private hire vehicle driver
A hackney carriage, private hire or dual driver’s licence will remain in force until the expiry date stated on the licence, unless it's suspended or revoked by us. The licence will be subject to conditions.
Applications and fees for these licences are for a three-year period only. We may issue a driver licence for less than three years:
- at your request
- where your right to remain in the UK is less than the three-year period. If the licence is approved it would only be issued for same time as the leave to remain
- where your medical check identified a requirement for review within the three-year period
There will be no reduction in fee for a licence granted for a shorter term.
DVLA Driving licence
You need to upload a copy of your DVLA photo driving licence when applying and to supply us with a DVLA check code to allow us to check the authenticity of your licence.
A DVLA driving licence check is repeated every 3 years.
Safeguarding, vulnerability, equality and diversity training
Further to the Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards and the implementation of the new Taxi and Private Hire Policy from the 1 April 2024 it will be a condition for all new and renewal driver licences to undertake safeguarding and vulnerability training.
Safeguarding training
The safeguarding training is delivered by STC Safeguarding. There is a fee of £40.00 for this training. You will be required to attach your certificate for this training to your renewal application and your licence will not be issued until such time as you have completed the training.
We will accept safeguarding certificates dated within the last 4 months. Please be aware that it could take between 14 and 28 days for your certificate to be issued, and therefore you need to aim to have completed your training prior to the month in which your badge renews. All bookings and payments are made directly to the provider.
Once you have successfully completed the training and your licence has been renewed, you will not be required to repeat the training until your next renewal is due in 3 years.
Vulnerability training
All existing drivers are required to complete mandatory vulnerability training prior to submitting their renewal application. This training is free. The certificate for this training must be attached to your renewal application.
The training consists of a short 15 minute video and 9 questions.
The vulnerability certificate will be valid for a period of 3 months, therefore please do not complete this until 3 months before your licence expires.
Medical certificate assessment
A medical examination form is needed when first applying and on each renewal until the age of 65 and every year thereafter. The medical assessment will only be considered valid for 4 months from the date of examination.
Licensed drivers need to be in good health so we use the DVLA's Group 2 Standards of Medical Fitness (like many other councils and TfL guidance).
Book an appointment with your GP as soon as possible. You will be required to submit a completed and signed medical examination report as part of your driver application. Your GP will charge a fee for this. Your GP must use this form:
A medical report may also be required if we have reason to doubt that a licensed driver would meet the current Group 2 Driver’s Medical Standards.
Convictions
When submitting an application, you need to declare any convictions or cautions you may have, not matter how old they are. Convictions, whether 'spent' or 'unspent' under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 will be taken into consideration.
Please see current licensing policy for further information on convictions.
Certificate of good character
If you have spent six months or more continuously outside the UK in the last five years, evidence of a criminal record check from the countries visited (covering the duration overseas) will be needed.
Where such checks are not available, a certificate of good character (previously named certificate of good conduct) needs to be authenticated by the relevant embassy.
The certificate of good character must be in English.
DBS
All applicants require a DBS and you may already be subscribed to the DBS Update service. If you have not subscribed or your subscription has lapsed please reapply for a new DBS through TaxiPlus.
It is mandatory to subscribe to the DBS Update service.
It is important that you always retain your last DBS certificate in order for us to verify the online update service check.
DBS update service checks will automatically be run at a minimum of 6 months.
If any changes are recorded a licence holder will be required to undertake a new DBS check through TaxiPlus at their own expense.
Only DBS certificates, completed through TaxiPlus, WNC or our legacy authorities and that are registered with the online update services will be accepted.
Tax checks
You must complete a tax check every time you apply.
Your application will not be considered if you don't provide a valid tax check code when needing to do so.
Right to work
If you are a renewal applicant who previously submitted time limited right to work, you must provide new evidence of your right to work in the UK.
Share code
Ideally, use the Government's Prove your Right to Work service and give us the share code provided on our application. This code lets us view and confirm your right to work online.
If you are not able to provide a share code (e.g. you are a holder of a UK passport or UK Birth Certificate), you will need to upload a copy of your right to work evidence when completing our application form.
NR3 Register
Once you have submitted an application we will verify and process your application, which will include a check of your details against those held on a national database known as NR3. This national register holds details of Taxi Licence refusals and revocations. The NR3 database is hosted by the National Anti-Fraud Network.
The information provided in your application may be shared with other agencies for the prevention and detection of fraud.
Change of details
Notify us of any change of details or request a replacement licence, badge or plate
Please be aware your conduct in making the application may be used in consideration of whether you have acted with integrity during the application process (e.g. if you make a false declaration or withhold any other relevant information that would reasonably be expected to be disclosed, this may be considered dishonest and the application may not be looked on favourably).
Before starting this form please ensure you have the codes you generated on the previous pages.
You can log back in and return to a previously started form at a later stage.
The fee payable on application is set by us and may be revised from time to time.
You can apply online for all driver renewals in the Northampton licensing portal with your existing login credentials.
Please be aware your conduct in making the application may be used in consideration of whether you have acted with integrity during the application process (e.g. if you make a false declaration or withhold any other relevant information that would reasonably be expected to be disclosed, this may be considered dishonest and the application may not be looked on favourably).
Please ensure you have the codes you generated on the previous pages and please email these with any documents once you have applied online to [email protected].
The fee payable on application is set by us and may be revised from time to time.
If you fail to apply for the renewal of your licence in time, you will be committing an offence if you drive a licensed vehicle once your driver’s licence expires and you are not yet issued with a new one.
The fact that a late application has been submitted does not authorise you to drive a vehicle licensed by us.
Policy
The following policy will come into force from 1 April 2024.
See our Licensing Policy page for our current Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Policy.
Last updated 17 April 2024