Private hire drivers reported for alleged sexual assaults

There have been 17 reports of alleged sexual assault or rape against Wolverhampton-licensed private hire drivers in the past three months, it has been revealed.

With almost 33,900 private hire vehicles licensed by the local authority on the road this year - 96% of them outside the city - Wolverhampton has been dubbed the "taxi capital" of the UK and criticised by other councils.

A Freedom Of Information (FOI) by a London-based taxi driver showed nine of the 17 assaults between 11 August and 11 November were related to passengers.

A spokesperson for City of Wolverhampton Council said the rate of reports against their drivers was lower than many other licensing authorities.

"Safeguarding is our number one priority in taxi licensing, and we adhere to all standards as set by government," they added.

"None of these drivers had a criminal conviction on their records when their licence was issued.

"Once aware of the allegations, we ensured all drivers surrendered their licence within one working day.

"Our policy is not to grant licences to anyone with a sexual offence or on a barred list. Our application process includes vigorous checks, and we are the only licensing authority to carry out daily DBS checks on all of our drivers."

Mark White, a London black cab taxi driver and committee member for the London Cab Drivers Club, submitted the original FOI.

He previously tried to request data for the course of a year, but was told by the council this exceeded the cost of compliance.

What the figures do not show is the number of reports of sexual assaults involving private hire drivers licensed by other councils, nor involving licensed taxi drivers.

Mr White said he was concerned about drivers licensed by Wolverhampton who were operating in other areas, adding that he feared checks might not be carried out and vehicles themselves could be unsafe.

"I've seen shocking images, of tyres being worn out, of drivers not getting checked because they're not in the area," he said.

"This situation is untenable for passengers, for legitimate drivers, and for licensing authorities trying to maintain safety standards."

Responding to this concern, a spokesperson for the council said: "Public safety is of paramount importance to us - we undertake compliance operations throughout the year, across the country, including Friday and Saturday nights to ensure safety for visitors to the night-time economy.

"Officers are equipped with laser tyre-tread readers to tackle illegal tyres, as well as infra-red cameras to detect ghost plates. 3D/4D licence plates are also prohibited for this reason.

"We are an official TyreSafe supporter and work to educate the trade on the importance of safe tyres, taking enforcement action where necessary."

Last month, it emerged that the number of private hire cars licensed by Wolverhampton had tripled over the past five years.

The council, which gives out the largest number of licences in England, had 33,893 private hire vehicles on the road in 2025, compared with just 10,768 in 2020.

Councils in Manchester, Blackpool, Somerset, Hull and Portsmouth have all voiced concerns about Wolverhampton's licensing and have called for an end to "out-of-town" taxi licensing.

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said he and other mayors supported a ban on out-of-area licensing, claiming that more than half of private hire vehicles operating in his region were licensed elsewhere.

Burnham said this posed a safety risk to passengers and made it unfair for locally licensed operators.

Addressing the scale of licensing by Wolverhampton, Mr White said: "It's a real national scandal.

"[The fear is] if government give the power to cap private vehicles in London, they'll [just] shut up shop and operate outside London and drive in."

A spokesperson for City of Wolverhampton Council said: "We recently gave evidence to the government's Transport Select Committee stating that the law needs urgent reform and have called for the introduction of uniform standards, uniform fees and improved cross border enforcement powers.

"We stress that it is illegal for the council to refuse applicants a taxi licence on the basis of where they live."

Speaking at the committee, David Pattison, the chief operating officer at the council, explained why he thought the local authority was so popular for taxi licensing.

"It is because of the way we have done it; we have had fees and an efficient system," he said.

Arguing against a suggestion that the popularity could be due to lower standards, as previously suggested by Andy Burnham, Mr Pattison said: "It is definitely not standards. We are really proud.

"We are always open to suggestions, but our guidelines relating to relevance of convictions - our standards for fit and proper - are stronger than the Department for Transport's (DfT) guidance.

"We have a strong approach to safeguarding. If we get a safeguarding concern raised with us, we will investigate it and decide what we need to do within one day.

"It is something we take seriously."

Last week, the government announced the DfT would shortly be launching a consultation on plans to make local transport authorities responsible for taxi and private hire car licensing.

It said the proposals would reduce the number of licensing authorities from 263 to 70 "to help further increase consistency in standards".

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