RESEARCHED AUTHORITY
New Forest
New Forest Council · Sources checked 13 September 2026
- Driver licensing
- Official route/source found
New Forest issues a combined hackney-carriage and private-hire driver licence. The adopted 2025 policy requires new applicants to pass the council driver knowledge test before licensing; it tests English, the Highway Code, taxi/private-hire law and New Forest geography. Applicants must provide an enhanced DBS certificate and declare convictions and motoring matters so the authority can determine whether they are fit and proper; refusals, revocations and suspensions are checked and recorded through NR3S. The council's September 2025 service report confirms that new and renewing drivers complete safeguarding training. It also confirms the current knowledge-test subject areas and notes that the test moved to a tablet-based format. Applicants should use the live council application route for the remaining evidence and appointment steps.
- Vehicle licensing
- Official route/source found
The adopted 2025 policy requires Euro 6 at initial licensing/replacement, but WAVs are exempt from emission/age criteria and the existing fleet has no upper-age/emission limit. Council inspection is annual under 8 and six-monthly from 8. This is not a Certificate of Compliance: obtain a separate MOT where required and keep road tax current. Supply insurance, inspection report and a Basic DBS issued within three months if not already an NFDC licensed driver. Licences run up to 12 months; another authority's licence must be surrendered first. Insurance write-offs of every category are excluded. Carry high-visibility clothing and wear it when attending the council garage; failure to do so causes a failed test.
- Operator licensing
- Official evidence found; detail still to confirm
The 2025 policy approved by Council on 24 February requires an operator business plan covering five years, customers, staffing and fleet; two business referees known for at least two years; and an interview during the one-month background-check consultation. Premises planning is consulted on and public-access premises need public-liability cover. Five-year licences are normal, with shorter terms justified individually, and renewal must be completed before expiry. A later official Council resolution of 15 December 2025 approved revised Appendix B, aligning suitability/conviction assessment with the Institute of Licensing guidance after a consultation with no responses. Consequently the February policy's old convictions appendix must not be presented as unchanged. Application requirements above remain supported, but the complete consolidated December appendix and operator staff-vetting/record-retention conditions need final reconciliation.
- Licensing fees
- Official route/source found
The committee adopted the corrected 2026/27 schedule effective 1 April 2026. Three-year dual driver new/renewal is £172, driver awareness test £60, five-year operator new/renewal £533 (pro rata where applicable), and annual hackney/private-hire vehicle licence including plate £177. Vehicle test or re-test is £63; eligible partial re-test £26. The PDF is headed proposed, but the linked resolution explicitly adopts Appendix 1.
- Taxi tariff
- Official evidence found; detail still to confirm
March2026 council report identifies June2022 as last implemented tariff and records a new review request, not an adopted increase. 2022 Appendix3: first850yd £2.60/£3/£4 for day07–23, night23–07/public holidays, festive respectively; then25p/35p/45p per started143yd. Festive24December18–27December07 and31December18–2January07. Appendix waiting30p/40p/50p per minute; report prose inconsistently says25p/35p/45p, so waiting needs final-card reconciliation. Extra20p each passenger above two; soiling£70; luggage/animal extras removed. Printed examples use proportional arithmetic despite started-distance wording (two-mile£7.27 versus stepped£7.35). Exact final issued card and current review outcome remain unverified.
- Mandatory qualifications
- Official evidence found; detail still to confirm
The taxi policy approved by Council on 24 February 2025 requires all new and renewing applicants to pass external safeguarding training. Its driver suitability framework includes district, Highway Code and taxi-law knowledge, English communication, medical fitness and a minimum age of 21. New drivers require enhanced DBS and all drivers must enrol in the Update Service, with six-monthly checks. These adopted requirements are confirmed, but the current course-provider, practical-assessment and disability-training details were not recovered; qualification coverage remains partial.
Withheld or still needing confirmation
- Main council website returned 403. Detailed driver, vehicle, operator and qualification conditions remain unverified. March 2026 tariff-review instruction is not an adopted fare uplift; current numeric fare card remains required.
- The authority's main application page was inaccessible during review; the published summary is limited to adopted policy and later official service-report facts.
- Preserve previous verified2026fee summary. Main current website inaccessible; later December2025 taxi-policy review surfaced and has not yet been reconciled, so this operator enrichment remains PARTIAL rather than unqualified current.
- December 2025 Appendix B supersedes earlier suitability text; consolidated final appendix and staff/records conditions not fully reviewed.
- Current approved training providers and full practical/disability assessment scheme remain unverified.
- June2022 implementation corroborated by2026 official report; do not invent day. Waiting prose/table and rounding examples conflict, preventing calculator use. No later review adoption recovered.
- Published version 2 used, not consultation's proposed five-year inspection threshold/ten-year age limit. Later amendments outside these reviewed vehicle provisions and fees not exhaustively checked.
- Preserve prior verified fields.