The Head of Regulatory Services and Community Safety Hire has submitted a report to seek agreement of the licence fees for 2023/24 where the Council has discretion over the level of fee charged.

Recommendation: That the General Purposes Licensing Committee resolves to:

1.    Agree the licence fees and charges for 2023/24 as set out in the Appendix 1 and recommend them to Council.

The Head of Regulatory Services and Community Safety had submitted a report to seek agreement of the licence fees for 2023/24 where the Council has discretion over the level of fee charged.

The Senior Licensing Compliance Officer introduced the report. Following no substantial variation to the fees and charges in the last five years, it was proposed that an increase of approximately 5% to the current fees and charges was made in 2023/24 in order to cover the Licensing Authority's costs due to inflationary pressures and reasonably represent the costs of carrying out the function.

The Senior Licensing Compliance Officer highlighted the introduction of two new fees for the following functions:

·         Private Hire Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) fee of £100 which would be offered at a discounted rate to encourage the Private Hire sector to licence more specialist type vehicles and ensure these services were accessible in Oxford.

·         Trust ID fees of £12 (DBS and RTW) and £8 (DBS) which would allow applicants to verify ID documents for Disclosure & Barring Services (DBS) and Right to Work (RTW) checks online. The Senior Licensing Compliance Officer confirmed that Trust ID was a secured and Home Office approved provider.

In response to questions, the Senior Licensing Compliance Officer confirmed that:

·         In addition to Road Closure Orders, events such as Christmas Markets would also require Temporary Events Notice licence which falls outside the remit of the General Purposes Licensing Committee.

·         The proposed licence fee for Private Hire Vehicle applications that were wheelchair accessible was £100 regardless of emissions.

·         Low emission Private Hire Vehicles that were also wheelchair accessible were rare and serviced a niche market such as daytime school runs which was less profitable than normal operating Private Hire Vehicles.

Cllr Diggins had put forward an amendment to the Appendix 1 of the report to include a new fee of £62 to the Licence Fees and Charges for 2023/24 Financial Year for Private Hire Vehicles that were Low Emission and Wheelchair Accessible which was a further discounted rate from the proposed £100 licence fee.

After putting to the vote, the Committee agreed to adopt the amendment.

The Committee resolved to:

1.    Delegate authority to the General Licensing Team Leader to amend Appendix 1 of the Commercial Events, Hackney Carriage and Private Hire, Road Closure Orders, Scrap Metal Dealers, Sex Establishments and Street Parties: Licence Fees and Charges for the 2023/24 Financial Year, in consultation with the Chair of the General Licensing Purposes Committee, to include a new discounted fee of £62 for Private Hire Vehicles that are Low Emission and Wheelchair Accessible;

2.    Agree the licence fees and charges for 2023/24 as amended and recommend them to Council.