RESEARCHED AUTHORITY
Ipswich
Ipswich Council · Sources checked 13 September 2026
- Driver licensing
- Official route/source found
Apply online for a combined hackney/private-hire driver licence, normally for up to three years. Submit DBS, medical fitness and assessment evidence and the licence fee. The medical must establish Group 2 fitness and be completed by a GP with access to medical records.
- Vehicle licensing
- Official route/source found
Apply online with fee and email V5 and insurance to licensing. Recent purchases can initially use a keeper slip with evidence; renewal requires full V5. Vehicles undergo nominated-garage mechanical/aesthetic inspection exceeding MOT standards. Licences last twelve months; vehicles over four years at grant require a midyear test, no earlier than eight weeks before the due date. Submit its certificate within three working days. Unroadworthy failures receive a STOP order and cannot work until passed and released. Check suitability before purchase; non-type-approved vehicles need individual-approval evidence. Expired licences cannot operate while renewal is undecided.
- Operator licensing
- Official evidence found; detail still to confirm
The current-linked 2024–2027 policy says operator licences may run for up to five years, with a shorter period available on request. The day-to-day manager must hold the council's Certificate of Competence, obtained by passing a 90% knowledge test on operator, private-hire vehicle and private-hire driver conditions. The applicant and each partner, director or company officer must provide a basic DBS unless one was already supplied with a driver-licence application. Operators must make and maintain sufficient suitability checks on everyone and every vehicle they employ, use or contract, including appropriate insurance and proper handling of complaints. Reuse of a revoked operator's name is barred for 48 months. If the Certificate holder leaves, the Licensing Team must be contacted as soon as possible and may allow a replacement grace period. The live hub also links detailed Appendix P conditions covering six-month booking/driver/vehicle records, staff checks and safeguarding, premises permissions and PSV substitution, but that document still says Draft Conditions – November 2020; those details therefore remain explicitly provisional rather than being presented as adopted current rules.
- Licensing fees
- Needs confirmation
Not verified in this batch.
- Taxi tariff
- Official route/source found
Current card effective 5 November 2025. Tariff 1 05:30–21:59: £3.70 after five seconds covers first 304.02 metres or 67.8 seconds combined; then 20p/138.33 metres or 30.933 seconds. Tariff 2 22:00–05:29 and public holidays except festive: £4.70 first 183.586 metres or 35.2 seconds combined; then 20p/116.98 metres or 22.616 seconds. Tariff 3 from 24 December 18:00 to 27 December 05:29 and 31 December 18:00 to 2 January 05:29: £5.30 first 307.47 metres or 68.7 seconds combined; then 20p/92.21 metres or 20.626 seconds. Extra passengers beyond two up to four 20p each; passengers beyond four 80p each; luggage 20p; soiling up to £75.
- Mandatory qualifications
- Official route/source found
Pass the council knowledge assessment covering combined-licence conditions, maths and Highway Code, an approved driving assessment, and the Introduction to the Role of a Professional Taxi and Private Hire Driver qualification.
Withheld or still needing confirmation
- Current linked February 2026 appendix reviewed; filename date is not asserted as legal commencement.
- Numeric licence fees remain unresolved; later field-specific enrichments preserve the verified vehicle, operator and tariff evidence.
- Current link verified, but draft footer needs adoption/version confirmation. Do not mark operator fully verified; preserve prior confirmed fields. No fresh operator fee verified.
- The 16-page current policy refers to detailed operator conditions in Appendix O, but that appendix is not included. The separately current-linked Appendix P remains labelled Draft Conditions – November 2020, so detailed booking, staff and premises conditions cannot be upgraded to unqualified current status.
- The policy contains no numerical licence fees; Ipswich remains the sole England fee field with no published numeric evidence in this dataset.
- A 2026 proposal with earliest 13 October implementation is future/unadopted on the check date and not substituted for this operative card.
- Printed metric/yard conversions and mixed initial time/distance allowance require reconciliation before automatic calculation.
- Full technical exceptions and current dated fee schedule remain to verify. Preserve earlier fields.