RESEARCHED AUTHORITY
Nottingham
Nottingham City Council · Sources checked 10 September 2026
- Driver licensing
- Official route/source found
Nottingham issues one combined licence to drive its hackney carriages and private-hire vehicles. Applicants must be at least 18, have held a full British driving licence for at least one year, complete the council application pack, and provide the Enhanced DBS and DVLA evidence, character references, work offer or hackney-proprietor confirmation, identity, right-to-work and photograph documents. All tests and checks must be passed before the one- or three-year badge is issued.
- Vehicle licensing
- Official route/source found
A Nottingham vehicle licence permits private-hire work through a city-licensed operator or, for a hackney carriage, plying for hire inside the city. Apply with the V5C, the appropriate hire insurance and the council fee. The council then arranges an MOT-standard examination at Eastcroft. Licences are normally annual, changing to six months for older vehicles under the published age rules; initial private-hire applications over ten years old are not accepted.
- Operator licensing
- Official route/source found
A five-year operator licence permits the invitation or acceptance of bookings for Nottingham-licensed private-hire vehicles from premises with the required planning status. Applicants disclose previous licensing history and relevant convictions and provide two character references and right-to-work evidence. More than two vehicles may require planning permission, and the proposed business name, telephone number and vehicle side-panel design must be submitted for consideration. Renewals should be presented at least 14 days before expiry.
- Licensing fees
- Official route/source found
The current council fee page does not state when its figures commenced. A driver licence is £148 for one year or £260 for three years; the council lists a £50 topography test, £60 driving test, £20 safeguarding awareness charge and £75 medical. Hackney and private-hire vehicle licences are £210 annually or £105 for six months, plus a £75 vehicle MOT and £30 initial plate deposit. Operator grant is £1,340 for five years and renewal £1,275, plus £21 per vehicle.
- Taxi tariff
- Official route/source found
Nottingham City Council's current hackney-carriage fare page states that the table took effect on 13 June 2022. From 6am to 10pm the meter starts at £2 for the first 122.2 yards, then adds 20p for each 86.2 yards to one mile and 20p for each further 160 yards; waiting is 20p per 38 seconds. A separate overnight distance and waiting scale applies from 10pm to 6am. Specified Christmas, New Year and bank-holiday journeys are fare-and-a-half, and the page lists a £1 addition and a non-enforced £60 soiling charge.
- Mandatory qualifications
- Official route/source found
New drivers must complete the Blue Lamp Trust safeguarding course, pass an accepted taxi driving assessment and pass Nottingham's electronic topography test covering conditions, locations, numeracy, road signs and shortest routes. They must also provide the required medical fitness evidence and Enhanced DBS and DVLA checks, register the DBS certificate with the Update Service, and meet identity and right-to-work requirements. The council conducts DBS checks every six months and continuing DVLA checks.
Withheld or still needing confirmation
- The current fee page provides numeric figures but no publication, financial-year or commencement date, so the amounts are released with an explicit effective-date gap.
- The driver page contains inconsistent wording about DVLA check frequency: its initial-issue section says annual DVLA checks, while its renewal section says every six months. The public summary says only that continuing DVLA checks apply and does not assert one frequency.
- The fare page's £1 surcharge row lacks a clear qualifying description in the rendered table. The amount is reported only as a listed addition and is not assigned to a passenger, luggage or other category.
- The council labels the £60 soiling amount as not enforceable by the Licensing Section, so it must not be described as a statutory or council-enforced tariff charge.